Demons of the Past
by The Silent Scream
Summary: After a brutal attack on Pat, old friends come to visit and to help, and details of the demon's colourful past are revealed, not all of them pleasant. While trying to deal with the new opponent out to kill her partner, Willow also has to handle some unsavory facts about her and come to terms with the demon's former life. Willow/OC, est. relationship, rating for violence and cursing
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: As promised, here's the next instalment in this little series. Huh, I should try to come up with a cool name for it or something… anyway, I hope you'll enjoy :)

Disclaimer: No characters of the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer verse are mine. Just borrowing them for a lil bit. :D

* * *

Demons of the Past

For the first time since she could remember, Willow was not just looking forward to the last lesson of the day, but also felt positively annoyed at how long it seemed to take for time to pass; usually, she enjoyed going to classes, learning new things – and sometimes, also showing off with what she knew – but on that particular day, she couldn't wait for the final bell.

"Jeez", Buffy observed with a slight smirk when finally, the next-to-last lesson had ended and they were on their way to the final one, "what's up with you today?"

"You don't know?" the redhead demanded to know, incredulous, frowning when the Slayer giggled and then gave her a mischief look, still grinning when she replied. "Of course I know it's your birthday, I congratulated you, silly! But you're still way giddier than you've ever been, even on your birthday."

"That's because I'm looking forward to the party", Willow let her know, some of her incredulity fading away at the way Buffy's eyes lit up her words, making it obvious that she was looking forward to said party too, "and because Pat promised me an awesome present."

"Will she give that to you when the rest of us are around, or is it for the bedroom?" Buffy teased, giggling again when the witch blushed as an answer, then cleared her throat and shot her best friend a mock annoyed look.

"For your information", she then began, the corners of her mouth twitching and betraying the smile that wanted to curl her lips, "she'll give it to me when all of you are around, but you should know her – or, better said, us – well enough by now to know that of course, there'll also be a… private celebration."

"Of course", Buffy smirked, "I just wanted to make you blush." Rolling her eyes, Willow gave her another look, then decided to drop the topic of private celebrations and asked if Dawn would be coming to the party later in the Bronze instead, smiling when immediately, the blonde nodded.

"She wouldn't miss that to save her life", she then let the redhead know, "she's been talking about nothing else all week! I swear, she's getting more ecstatic about this than about her own birthday."

"No surprise", Willow shrugged in reply, "it's been a while since we all went out together. We've just been way too busy." Nodding her agreement, Buffy gave her friend another smile, then they entered the classroom where the final lesson would be held together; they quickly took their seats, and once more, Willow started counting the minutes as she waited for the lesson to end so she finally could go home, successfully ignoring the fact that it'd still be several hours until the start of the party even once she'd be done with classes for the day.

* * *

"Do I really have to wait?" Willow almost whined two hours later, after quite the filling dinner her partner had provided for her, giving her the best puppy dog look she could manage; to her dismay though, Pat remained unperturbed, just nodding in reply, smirking when the redhead pouted slightly.

"You'll get it along with all the other presents", she then said, chuckling when the witch's pout intensified, "so be patient."

"Fine", Willow grumbled, finally giving in, "I'll wait then… But, for the record, I'm not happy about it."

"You will be once you'll open it", the demon promised, still unimpressed; then, she changed the topic by asking if everyone the redhead had invited had agreed to come, making her girlfriend smile again while she nodded.

"Yes, all of them", she then happily let her girlfriend know, "so we'll be eighteen people. I hope there'll be enough free tables at the Bronze for all of us."

"If not, I'll just flame up and send some of the other guests into hysterics, so they'll run away", Pat smirked, chuckling at the look she received for that from the smaller woman. "Just kidding", she quickly reassured her, "no flames tonight, I promise."

"Except for those on the birthday cake", Willow smiled, making the demon nod; the couple grinned at each other for a moment, then the redhead grabbed the front of her shirt and pulled her closer, kissing her tenderly moments later.

"You're too cute when you're looking forward to something", Pat let her partner know after they had pulled apart again, "let's just hope the evening will live up to your expectations, I'd hate to see you disappointed…"

"Well, my best friends will be there, and you", Willow pointed out to her in reply, "so I don't see how it could end up disappointing me."

"Good point", the demon agreed, chuckling when the redhead's answer was to pull her close yet again, the couple sharing another tender kiss moments later.

"I can't wait for the private celebration", she murmured after the kiss, not surprised when a familiar sparkle appeared in her girlfriend's good eye in reply, a similar tone in her voice when she replied. "Who says we have to wait?"

Giggling, Willow checked her watch in reply, then figured that there was more than enough time; without bothering to answer any other way, she let herself sink backwards on the couch, pulling the taller woman on top of her, all thoughts blown out of her mind not all too long afterwards.

* * *

Several hours later, all members of the Scoobie Gang and the students from college Willow had invited had assembled in the Bronze; since she was the reason for the party, the witch was sitting at one of the tables while most of the others stood around her in a semi-circle, letting out proper admiring noises as she opened one gift after the other.

"Ooh, Buffy", she cooed after she opening the present the Slayer had handed her with a happy smirk, holding up the black leather jacket with shining eyes, "that looks so cool! But wasn't it awfully expensive?"

"Don't worry about that", the blonde shrugged it off, "I'm just glad you like it! Did you notice, it kinda looks like the one Pat has, only that it isn't twenty years old, like hers."

"Hmph", the demon let out in reply, looking down at herself and at said jacket, "it's still looking fine, isn't it?"

"Yes", Willow reassured her, only to gulp when one of her fellow students raised an eyebrow and asked why the taller woman had such an old jacket if she was in her late twenties herself; luckily though, Pat already was prepared to answer such questions without giving away the fact that she was quite far from her late twenties, telling the girl that it had been a present from her father.

"Open mine next", she then added before this could be questioned, gesturing at the present; nodding eagerly, Willow pulled the surprisingly large package closer to herself, having to restrain herself from ripping it open all too eagerly; instead, she made herself unwrap it more or less calmly, a gasp escaping her when she had the wrappings halfway removed and saw what her partner had gotten her.

"Oh my Goodness", she finally brought out, looking up at the demon with wide eyes, "you're crazy!"

"I love you, too", Pat smirked, ignoring the stunned looks from the other guests, even from the members of the Scoobie Gang, "and I guess that means you like it?"

"You're crazy", Willow just repeated in reply, standing up so she could embrace her partner, the new laptop she had gotten her still halfway wrapped up, the other guests whispering among each other about the expensive presents while the demon returned the hug, the smirk on her face widening slightly.

"I figured you might need a new one", she then shrugged, "you've already had yours when we got together, and lately, you've been complaining quite often about how slow it is."

"I know", the redhead gave back, still surprised by this – Pat had made her expensive gifts before, various pieces of jewellery and trips to quite classy restaurants, but this had to be a new height.

"Thank you", she added, not sure what else she could say; deciding that there was other, non-verbal ways to show her gratitude, she thus stood on the tips of her toes to kiss the black haired woman tenderly, the people all around letting out cooing "Awww" noises at the cute sight.

"You should have given her your present as the last one", Xander scolded Pat once they had pulled apart again and Willow had sat down once more to open the rest of the gifts, "now all others will be much less impressive!"

"Aww, no, don't worry", the redhead answered before her partner had the chance to reply anything, "it's not the size of the present that counts, it's the thought behind it!"

Obviously calmed down, Xander beamed happily at her, glad when she lived up to her own words and thanked him with a hug as well after opening his present, which turned out to be a DVD box of one of her favourite shows. It didn't really surprise her that Anya's present was a gift certificate for the Magic Box, but she thanked the ex-demon heartily nonetheless; afterwards, she opened the presents her fellow students had brought along, and after the last one had been opened and the giver had been thanked properly, Buffy declared that it was time for the cake now.

"Pat", she then smirked, "do you mind giving me a hand with it?"

"Of course not", the demon gave back at once, still taking the time for a quick kiss before she followed Buffy into the backroom of the club, where the owner had allowed them to store the cake in one of the fridges.

"Let's hope no one will enter for a minute or two", she muttered while putting the cake on the table, then watched how the taller woman lit up the candles with a small flame she'd made appear on her index finger, giggling at the way Pat grimaced in reply while she nodded.

"Especially not Willow", she then explained the expression on her face, "I promised her I wouldn't flame up tonight."

"Aw, that hardly counts", Buffy giggled, "it's just an itty bitty tiny baby-flame."

"Itty bitty… How much beer did you have already?" the demon teased as answer, only to yelp when the Slayer punched her in the upper arm, much harder than necessary.

"Hey, no hitting the girlfriend of the birthday girl", she then reprimanded, quickly stepping back when Buffy raised her fist again, the blonde giggling moments later and patting her friend's shoulder instead; the demon let out a small snort at the gesture, then finished lighting up the candles and carefully picked up the cake, asking Buffy to hold the door open for her.

"There we go", the Slayer announced as soon as the demon had stepped back into the club's main room, "lots of sugar waiting to be devoured! But first you'll have to blow out the candles, birthday girl…"

The small crowd of guests let out appropriate "Ooh" and "Aah" noises as the cake was carried over to the table and set down there carefully; taking in a deep breath, Willow bent forward slightly and blew with all her might, smiling from ear to ear when all the candles went out at once.

"Well done!" "Good job!" the guests called out, applauding her; then, Buffy handed her the knife she had borrowed from the barkeep while Dawn found the package of cardboard plates, and, still smiling widely, the redhead cut the cake, moving piece after piece on the plates Dawn was holding out to her, all the guests soon munching happily.

"Oh, this cake is amazing", one of the college girls told Willow after eating half of her piece, "who made it? Your girlfriend?"

"God, no", Pat threw in before the redhead could answer, "if I'd made that, you'd all end up with food poisoning. Dawn made it."

Giggling, Willow nodded her agreement, the other girl laughing as well at the demon's reaction before she turned to Dawn and asked her for the recipe; since now, the redhead found herself without any guest paying attention on her, she took the chance given by putting her cake aside and moving closer to the taller woman, smiling when immediately, Pat put her plate down as well and pulled her into a tender embrace.

"Enjoying the party?" she asked in a low voice, smiling when immediately, Willow nodded, smiling from ear to ear again while she returned the hug, her smile widening even further when the taller woman pulled her closer.

"It's as perfect as I hoped it would be", she then let her partner know, "and thanks again for the amazing present…"

"You're welcome", Pat gave back, then smirked, a slightly mischief glint in her good eye again when she continued. "And just wait when we get home, then I'll have an even better present for you."

"Can't wait", Willow giggled, "will it be better than the one you gave me this afternoon, at home?"

"Much better", Pat promised, then bend down for a quick kiss; afterwards, she asked if it'd be okay to step outside for a quick cigarette, shaking her head when the witch offered to accompany her.

"You stay here, and entertain your guests", she almost ordered, "I'll hurry, okay?"

"Alright then", Willow agreed after a moment, figuring that it would be impolite to leave her guests behind, even if it'd just be for ten minutes or so, "enjoy it then, and don't take too long…"

"Ten minutes, at the most", the demon promised in reply, then kissed her once more before she hurried off; Willow looked after her for a moment, a small smile curling her lips without her even fully noticing, then Dawn came up to her and asked her about the laptop she had received, distracting her from watching her partner go as she focused on the teenager and on telling her about how awesome this laptop was, making her giggle with her enthusiasm.

Next to them, another one of the college girls soon noticed what they were talking about and joined in as well; it didn't take long until Dawn was left standing there slightly confused, as the talk had turned from mere gushing to quite laden with technobabble, the teenager not having the slightest idea what they were talking about after another five minutes.

Shrugging it off, she left them to their talk and turned to her sister, who was busy chatting to Xander; since they were having a much less nerdy topic, it was easier for Dawn to follow them and to join in, soon deeply engrossed in the chat with her sister and her friend, neither of them noticing how time flew by.


	2. Chapter 2

When Willow thought of checking her watch again, she was stunned to see that more than half an hour had passed since Pat had left for her cigarette break; frowning, she looked around to see if she could spot her partner anywhere, momentarily thinking that the black haired woman had gotten caught up talking to someone when she had made her way back inside, not able to stop her heart from beating faster when she couldn't spot the demon anywhere.

If she had lived in any other town, or maybe didn't know about the dangers of Sunnydale, she still wouldn't have worried; since she was well aware though about the true nature of this town, she quickly found Buffy, keeping her voice low when she spoke up, not wanting any of her less aware guests to hear and maybe become frightened. "Buffy, Pat's been on her cigarette break quite long now, I'll go and look where she is…"

"I'll come with you", the Slayer decided at once, prompting Xander to say that he'd do the same, just in case; the blonde nodded, then asked Dawn to keep the guests from following them – or from even noticing that Willow had gone outside, glad when the teenager nodded at once.

"I'm sure everything's fine", she added at her sister's worried look, "but just to be on the safe side."

"I'm gonna scold Pat if she's talking to someone out there and forgot the time", Willow let her two closest friends know while they made their way through the crowd and to the door, "she should know better than to do that, in that kind of town…"

Nodding, Buffy smiled at her, not wanting to think about the other things the demon's absence could mean; Willow bravely smiled back at her, then pushed the door open and stepped outside, giving her best to remain calm even when she couldn't spot the demon at once.

"Pat?" she called out as she stepped out of the club, Buffy and Xander close behind her; while she took another step forwards and looked around, as if she could make her partner appear by just doing that often enough, Buffy moved to the right and Xander to the left, checking the side alleys there, both of them calling the black haired woman's name as well.

Just when the Slayer opened her mouth again to do this for a second time, she heard hurried footsteps, rushing away from her; upon looking into the direction they had been coming from, she saw a bunch of dark figures round the corner at the other end of the side alley she had chosen to check, but before she could ponder this further, her gaze fell on the motionless figure lying face down on the ground, close to one of the dumpsters standing against the brick wall of the Bronze.

With her heart leaping up to her throat, she took in a deep breath, for a moment not sure if she should call to Willow already or not; then, a passing car at the other end of the alley illuminated it long enough to confirm her worst suspicions, and she had to swallow twice before she could say anything, her mouth and throat suddenly awfully dry.

"Willow?" she finally managed, then finding herself at a loss for words; the tone of her voice had been enough though to alert the witch, and no further words were necessary, the redhead immediately hurrying over to her, gasping when she saw the reason for the Slayer's dismay.

"Oh God", she brought out after a moment, then forgot all caution and just ran, ignoring it when Buffy called out her name sharply; it didn't take her long to reach her partner, and she went down on her knees next to her, her heart cramping up when she saw how much blood was drying on the taller woman's face and clothes and the bruises which were already forming.

She barely noticed how both Buffy and Xander caught up to her, a sharp intake of breath coming from the young man when he saw how much damage had been done to his friend; both Buffy and he went down on their knees as well, looking from the clearly unconscious demon to Willow, the redhead fighting hard to keep her composure as she struggled to remain calm.

"Who did this?" Xander demanded to know, looking around as if the attackers could appear out of nowhere again; next to him, Buffy shrugged helplessly, then told him what she had seen, namely a bunch of people running away, but that she wasn't sure anymore if there had been three or four of them.

"Cowards, in either case", she added, momentarily glaring into the direction where they had been running before she focused on the demon again, watching how as carefully as possible, Willow turned her on her back and pulled her head into her lap, relieved to see that the taller woman was still breathing.

"What should we do?" Xander fretted, wringing his hands, "if this was anyone else, I'd just call an ambulance, but she can heal it, right? When she wakes up?"

"Yes", Willow agreed, not taking her eyes off her partner's features for even a second, both Buffy and Xander watching how she carefully moved hair matted with blood out of Pat's face, then tenderly pulled the eyepatch back down from its askew position so it covered the ruined eye again, as it was supposed to, "but she'll have to wake up first, and we can't just leave her here on the ground until then…"

"Xander, get the car", Buffy decided for both of them in reply, "we'll take her home, there, she can demon out in peace, too, once she woke up. And before you do, go back inside and tell Dawn that… that Pat's not feeling well, and that we are taking her home."

"Will do", the young man replied at once, obviously glad that he had been told what to do; he came to his feet again, taking the time to place one hand on Willow's shoulder and give it a reassuring squeeze, finally making her look up at him and smile weakly.

"She'll be okay", she then told Buffy while Xander hurried back to the club's entrance, "from what I can tell, they beat her up pretty bad, but I don't think there are any life threatening injuries…"

Buffy had enough sense to not mention the dreadful mental images of internal bleedings and broken bones that came up in her mind at hearing those words; from what she could see, the redhead was right and whoever had done this had done quite the thorough job with beating Pat up, but she figured that, as soon as the black haired woman would wake up and demon out, all those cuts and bruises would heal and she'd be fine again, thus deciding that there was no need to worry Willow unnecessarily.

Before she could ponder this further, Xander drove his car up to the side alley, stopping as close to them as possible; she gave the witch a quick look to make sure it was okay, then carefully moved her arms beneath the demon's motionless body and lifted her up, only to nearly drop her again when she let out a weak, but audible groan in response.

With Willow right next to her, she hurried over to the car as soon as she could be sure she had a secure grip on the taller woman; for a moment, she worried about internal injuries and broken bones again, about additional damage she might be causing right now, then shrugged it off while she carefully moved Pat to the backseat of the car, not surprised when Willow got in beside her a moment later, taking the demon's head into her lap again and caressing her hair tenderly.

"Should I come with you?" the Slayer demanded to know while Xander shifted on the driver's seat impatiently; Willow considered this for a moment, then shook her head, pointing out that it'd be too dangerous to leave Dawn behind alone, probably not as long as she was in the club, but walking home late at night had proven to be a health hazard to girls of her age before.

"Good point", the blonde had to admit, "alright, I'll go back inside then and make up some story about Pat having a stomach ache or something… Call me as soon as she's fine again, alright? We need to find out who attacked her and why."

"Will do", Willow promised, making herself smile weakly; Buffy responded with a reassuring smile of her own, briefly touching her best friend's hand before she finally stepped back, closed the car door and hurried back into the Bronze while Xander stepped down on the gas pedal at last, soon driving down the road that would lead to the apartment building where the witch and the demon were living.


	3. Chapter 3

Once Xander had helped her with getting Pat into the apartment and there, on the couch, since it had been nearer than the bed, Willow had to reassure him several times that it was okay to leave and that she'd be able to handle things on her own now, reminding him of the fact that she only had to wait for the demon to wake up so she could get up, transform and heal herself, the young man finally giving in and almost ordering her to call him, should anything unexpected happen.

"It'll be fine", she reassured him once more, giving him a calming smile, "thank you. And thanks for taking us home."

"No problem, really", Xander gave back at once, now smiling slightly as well, "I'm glad I could help. Call me once your girl's fine again, okay?"

Nodding, Willow smiled at him once more, then politely waited until he had turned away before she closed the apartment door; she took the time to lock it, then hurried back into the living room where Pat laid on the couch, still dead to the world, her slow and calm breaths briefly making the witch wonder if she still was unconscious or if she had gone from being knocked out to fast asleep without anyone noticing.

"Is that even possible?" she pondered out loud, then shrugged it off and crouched down next to the couch, remembering how not all too long ago, the positions of Pat and her had been reversed, how she had laid there in pain after being tortured and the demon had sat on the ground in front of her.

"Come on, Sweetie", she mumbled, moving one hand to caress her partner's hair again, grimacing when she felt a bump hidden beneath the thick black and red strands, "wake up… For me? Please?"

Her heart nearly skipped a beat when half a minute later, the demon let out a weak groan, the lid of her good eye fluttering; not wanting her to slip back into unconsciousness, Willow quickly grasped her hand with her free one, giving it a tender squeeze, her voice a bit louder when she went on. "You hear me? Come on, wake up then, or I'll have to call an ambulance and you'll have to stay in the hospital. No demoning out there, you know!"

To her relief and amusement, this seemed to do the trick; Pat let out another groan, then her good eye finally opened, and she blinked, dazed, then suddenly tried to sit up, obviously remembering what had happened before she had been knocked out.

"No, don't, it's okay", Willow hurriedly tried to calm her down, placing both hands on her shoulders to keep her from moving too much too quickly, "we're at home, it's okay, they're gone…"

To her relief, the demon listened to her, since she slumped back on the couch – before she turned her head and coughed, then spat out a tooth, making the redhead grimace as it landed on the carpet.

"Sorry", Pat muttered, a grimace on her face as well, even though Willow wasn't sure if it had been caused by the tooth or by the pain she undoubtedly still was in; she told her not to worry about it, then picked the tooth up and threw it into the ashtray before she asked her partner if she wanted to remain on the couch a bit longer or try to get up and demon out immediately.

"An hour ago", the black haired woman dryly replied, wincing in pain moments later when Willow helped her to get up; she swayed for a moment, then, once she could be sure she wouldn't fall over, involuntarily let out a low growl as she changed, the redhead watching the transformation from a safe distance, not wanting to get burned accidentally.

The moment the wounds had healed, Pat returned to her human form, then let herself fall back down on the couch heavily, grimacing – even though in her demonic state, she could heal wounds quite easily, as long as no body parts were missing, she still felt the pain for a while even after the healing had been completed, a fact that made her grimace again when she moved to get out her cigarettes.

"Sorry for ruining your birthday party", she muttered once she had found them and had lit one of them up, grimacing again when the first drag brought up fresh pain in her recently healed, formerly broken ribs; immediately, Willow shook her head and sat down next to her, giving her such a warm and loving look she automatically smiled back at the redhead.

"Don't you be sorry for anything, those idiots are the ones who should be", the witch now admonished, then gave her partner a curious look, the demon already knowing which question would come next before it had been asked. "Do you know who they were?"

"No idea", Pat sighed out, her dismay about this clearly showing through her voice and her facial expression, "when I stepped outside to have that smoke, I heard two of those guys beating up a third one, I thought they were vampires or something and went to help… Turns out that probably was some sort of trap, because the moment I touched the one closest to me, they ganged up on me and beat the shit out of me."

"Language", Willow automatically reprimanded, "and, wow, that sounds as if they've been after you specifically then… Were they as strong as vampires? Or demons?"

"Well, they weren't regular humans", Pat gave back at once, "no offense, Sweetie, but your kind isn't exactly on the physically strong side, compared to me, if they had been just normal guys, I would've mopped the floor with them."

"But who'd be after you?" Willow thought out loud in reply, not minding the comment about the physical strength of mere humans, "after all this time? Even the demons and vampires who know you work with Buffy gave up on attacking you, they know even if you don't kick their asses immediately, the Slayer will come along the next time and help."

"Unfortunately, they didn't leave their business cards with me", the demon dryly gave back, smirking when she received a raised eyebrow in reply, a look she had directed so often at Willow and her friends that by now, the witch was mimicking it, as well.

"I didn't expect them to do that", the redhead then let her partner know, "but I thought maybe you knew them, or they said something. Hey, wait… You don't think they were sent by that guy whom you betrayed when we got together, right?"

"That guy's dead", Pat reminded her of a small, but not unimportant fight in reply, "we killed him during that fight in the house outside of town, remember? If it's successor, it's taken him quite long, that's been years ago!"

"Good point", Willow admitted, sighing to herself, "but that was the only option that came to my mind…"

"Maybe they weren't even particularly after me", Pat shrugged it off, putting one arm around her, "but just some idiots looking for someone to beat up."

"I doubt that", Willow gave back, but before she could go on, the demon silenced her by placing one finger over her lips, smiling slightly at the incredulous look the smaller woman gave her.

"Let's not worry about that for now", she then said, pulling her hand back, "it's still your birthday, I'm all fine again, so let's think of more pleasant things."

Even though she knew that this might not be the smartest thing to do, the redhead agreed after a moment, figuring that right now, they didn't have much chances to find out who had been behind the attack anyway; she smiled back at her girlfriend, then moved a bit closer to her on the couch, a content sigh escaping her when immediately, she was pulled into a tender embrace.

"I'm glad you're fine again", she still found it necessary to say, her smile fading, "that healing abilities really come in handy, I got quite the scare when Buffy found you and I saw you, lying there all knocked out and bloody…"

"Aw, you know it takes more than that to do some serious harm", Pat reminded her of how robust she was; smiling again, Willow nodded, then leaned in for a kiss, another sigh coming from her when almost immediately, it deepened.

Finally, when oxygen was becoming an issue, she had to pull back again, panting slightly; she could see a well-known and well-loved sparkle in her lover's good eye, well aware of the fact that it was mirrored through her own gaze, a smile curling her lips when, instead of saying anything, the demon merely nodded towards the door leaning to the bedroom.

"Someone's insatiable today", she teased while she already got up from the couch, grabbing Pat's hand and pulling her up too; chuckling, the taller woman shrugged, then mumbled "Don't hear any complaints" – before she swept the startled witch up into her arms, chuckling again when she let out a squeal in reply.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna drop you", she reassured the smaller woman when she clung to her, "I never did before, right?"

"Right", Willow agreed, deciding not to mention that she never had carried her anywhere before right after demoning out to heal the injuries a severe beating had caused; to her relief, Pat kept her promise and didn't drop her, making her way into the bedroom safely with her where she lowered her on the bed, and not all too long afterwards, all thoughts of attacks, beatings and injuries were forgotten.


	4. Chapter 4

In the next morning, Willow woke up to the sound of her phone ringing, letting out a small groan as she forced her eyelids open; a quick glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand next to her side of the bed told her that it was nearly ten a.m., and she wondered how long exactly Pat and she had stayed up the previous night while she sat up and grabbed her pants from the floor, quickly finding the phone in one of the pockets.

"You didn't call me anymore yesterday", Buffy reprimanded her right after she had taken the call, without even giving her the chance to greet her, "and neither did you call Xander. Shame on you!"

"Sorry", Willow mumbled in reply, giving her best to keep her voice low since her partner was still slumbering soundly next to her, "I kinda… forgot."

"I assume Pat's fine again, then", Buffy teased as an answer, not able to keep the hint of mischief out of her voice, giggling when the redhead cleared her throat noisily in reply, something she regretted instantly though when next to her, the demon in question let out a grunt and rolled over, didn't wake up though.

"Wait a minute", she whispered to her best friend, then got out of bed and quickly made her way into the adjoining bathroom, briefly shivering as the cold morning air hit her naked skin; she took the time to pull on her bathrobe, then sat down at the edge of the bathtub, telling Buffy that now, they could talk properly.

"Pat's still asleep", she added as soon as she had made herself comfortable, "and I didn't want to wake her up."

"Very considerate of you", Buffy smirked on her end of the line, then grew serious again as she went on, her words making the witch smile slightly. "So she's really fully fine again? She looked quite bad yesterday…"

"She is", Willow confirmed, touched by the concern her best friend showed for the black haired woman, "it healed all just fine when she demoned out. Even though I was worried at first about how long it took her to wake up…"

"Does she have any idea about who they were?" Buffy demanded to know in reply, frowning when Willow told her no; quickly, the witch repeated the talk she'd had with Pat about just that topic the previous evening, then let out a small sigh, nervously running one hand through her hair as her mind returned to the unpleasant question of who those people had been.

"I don't like the thought of someone out there so eager to beat her up", she then confessed, "and even though she doesn't seem to care much, I'm quite sure they were after her and didn't just choose her randomly."

"So am I", Buffy agreed at once, only increasing the redhead's worries, "it just seems too much of a coincidence, I mean, she said they were pretending to beat one of them up and attacked her when she tried to help, right? I don't think they'd have put up such a scheme if they wanted to just beat some random person up."

"My thoughts exactly", Willow sighed, "but if they said anything to her, she doesn't remember…"

"Can't you do some sort of spell?" Buffy guessed in reply, frowning to herself, "to look into her memories or something? You did that before, right?"

"I did", Willow realized, nearly slapping herself on the forehead, not able to believe she hadn't thought of that herself, "I'll do just that once she woke up and we had breakfast… Goddess, I can't believe I forgot that!"

"Well, it was quite the exciting night", Buffy smirked, "at first, you get all those lovely presents and have that amazing cake my sister made, and then your girlfriend gets beaten up by some thugs, not an ordinary birthday, huh?"

"Indeed", Willow sighed out, "let's hope the next one will be more peaceful…" She trailed off as a thought hit her, and her eyes went wide, a gasp escaping her that made the Slayer jump at her end of the line.

"What?" Buffy then demanded to know, immediately sounding concerned, already imagining yet another attack on the demon and her partner, "what happened?"

"The presents!" Willow cried out in reply, for the first time since Buffy had found her girlfriend outside the Bronze remembering them, "I left them all there, the jacket and the laptop and everything… Oh, Pat's gonna be so mad!"

"She hardly ever gets mad at you, and surely, that wouldn't be one of the few reasons that make her mad", Buffy reasoned as an answer, "and anyway, no worries, Dawn and I took all the presents along when we left, they're all safe in our house!"

"Oh thank you", the redhead gave back, so relieved that it made the Slayer giggle, "and yeah, you're right about Pat, she wouldn't have gotten mad, but anyway… We'll drop by later today and get them, okay?"

"Fine with me", Buffy reassured her, adding that both Dawn and she would be at home all day; Willow thanked her once more for taking the presents along, then the sounds of her partner waking up drifted through the door, and she quickly let the blonde know that she had to go now, telling her that they'd be there at about two before she said goodbye and hung up.

Pulling the bathrobe tighter around her body, she opened the bathroom door and stepped back into the bedroom; there, the demon was sitting upright in the bed, rubbing her good eye, looking up though when she heard the witch enter, even managing a smirk despite just having woken up.

"Good morning", the redhead smiled at her, putting the phone down on the nightstand before she sat down next to her girlfriend, her smile widening when immediately, she was pulled into an embrace, a grunt accompanying the gesture.

"Buffy called", she explained the reason of her absence at the questioning look she received from the taller woman a moment later, "and I went into the bathroom so I wouldn't wake you up. She scolded me because I didn't call her once you were fine again yesterday."

"Hrmph", the demon let out in reply, as always not all too capable of proper speech right after waking up; giggling, Willow turned in her embrace so she could face her properly, her giggle turning into a tender smile as she reached up and caressed the demon's cheek gently, once more glad about her healing abilities, not wanting to imagine how she would have looked now, had she not been able to heal the damage that had been inflicted on her so quickly.

"She figured out why I didn't call her when I told her we forgot", she went on, ignoring it when she received just another grunt as an answer, by now used to her partner's lack of communication skills right after getting up, "so don't be surprised if she makes any comments when we go to her house today."

That resulted in another questioning look, and quickly, Willow explained why they'd need to go to Buffy's home later that day; to her great relief, Pat didn't get mad at her for forgetting about all the presents after all, but merely grunted again, then nodded when the redhead asked her if she was up to having breakfast already.

"Come on then", she smiled after the demon had given her agreement, pulling back from the hug and grasping her hand, pulling her up from the bed with some difficulties; Pat let out another grunt at the action, then vanished into the bathroom to put on her own robe, clearly not willing to wander around naked while her partner was dressed, something Willow regretted momentarily – before she shrugged it off, telling herself that she could admire her girlfriend as much as she wanted later on.

Once the demon had gotten more or less dressed, the two made their way into the kitchen together; there, to Willow's endless surprise, Pat took care of the coffee, giving her the chance to focus on preparing the food, the redhead settling for waffles after a quick peek into the fridge.

While she started with the preparations, Pat slumped down on the nearest chair after getting done with the coffee machine and found one of the cigarette packs she had placed strategically all over the apartment; not bothering to look for a lighter, since it was just Willow and her, she lit it up on a small flame she made appear on her index finger, then leaned back into the seat and tiredly rubbed her good eye once more, the adorable sight making Willow smile to herself.

"You're too cute after you just woke up", she then told the demon, something she surely had said a thousand times by now, but still made Pat grunt nonetheless; she giggled to herself, then focused on the waffles again, not wanting to mess them up and give herself a stomach ache.

Finally, both the coffee and the waffles were finished; as always when they ate waffles for breakfast, Pat practically drowned hers in maple syrup, once more making Willow shake her head as she watched this and the copious amounts of sugar the demon was spooning into her coffee.

"You're really lucky you're a demon", she stated once her partner was satisfied about the sweetness of her breakfast, "if a regular human ate and drank like that, they'd get diabetes or something."

"Lucky me, yeah", Pat muttered, finally able of proper talking, now that she'd had a few sips of coffee and a cigarette; smiling, Willow reached over to ruffle her hair, giggling at the snort she received in reply.

"You know", she then continued, growing serious again, "Buffy suggested that I should do that spell to look into your memory, you know, the one I did when that girl Stacey took away your demon? Just to make sure you didn't miss anything those guys might have said…"

"But if I don't remember, will the spell bring it back?" Pat wanted to know in reply, frowning, not surprised though when immediately, Willow nodded.

"Most likely", she then reassured her, "remember when I did it back then after that bitch" – at hearing that word coming from the witch's mouth, the demon raised an eyebrow, didn't make a comment though – "took your demon, you didn't remember anymore either, but the spell showed it to us."

"Good point", the demon had to admit, "alright, do it then… After I had another smoke." And with those words, she helped herself to another one of the cancer sticks and lit it up; smiling, Willow nodded, then focused on her breakfast again, finishing her portion of waffles and emptying her cup of coffee before she leaned back into her seat, feeling content and happy now that her stomach was full.


	5. Chapter 5

"Up to doing the spell now?" she asked once her partner had put out the cigarette, making her nod; smiling, she moved her chair so she sat facing the demon, then told her to close her eye and to relax, something the taller woman did a few moments later.

"Alright", Willow mumbled, closing her eyes as well as she started focusing on the spell and on looking into the right memories, "here we go then…" She took in a deep breath, then began the chant, and right after she had said the last word, bright light bloomed up in the darkness behind her eyes, and she…

…_stepped out of the Bronze into the cool night air to have her cigarette, but right after lighting it up, the unmistakable sounds of fighting came from one of the side alleys nearby, and with a frown, she dropped the cigarette and followed the noise, her frown deepening when she saw two men beating up another, helpless looking one. "Hey!" she snapped, moving a few steps closer to the men and making them look at her, "cowards, why don't you take on someone your size?" Then one of them smiled, and she heard footsteps behind her, but before she could turn, something hard and wooden struck her in the back, making her stumble forwards; she saw the fist coming and turned her head just in time to avoid taking it full in the face, getting punched into the side of her jaw instead, and then all four of them were upon her, even the man she had tried to help. She fought back as hard as she could, using fighting knowledge she had gained through centuries, but they were as quick as she was, and as strong; it didn't take long until she went down under the hail of punches, and once she was on the ground, they started kicking, until it all finally got too much and the world went dark around her…_

With a little cry, Willow jerked her hands away from her partner's head, her eyes flying open; breathing heavily, she stared at Pat, the demon holding her gaze, looking slightly dazed now that she had been forced to relive those awful minutes.

"They didn't even say a word", the witch finally brought out, her voice trembling slightly – she had known that the beating had been bad, something which had been made obvious by the countless cuts and bruises the black haired woman had been sporting when they had found her, "they just started beating you up! And that one coward, attacking from behind?"

"Yeah, quite the asshole, that one", Pat agreed, lighting up another cigarette, her hand shaking just enough to let Willow notice – obviously, going through this once more had been quite uncomfortable for her, as well.

"Well, it does seem as if they just wanted to beat someone up randomly", she then added, after taking a long drag from the cigarette and blowing the smoke towards the ceiling, "if there'd been a particular reason, or if someone had sent them, they would have said something, no?"

"Maybe", Willow gave back, shifting on her seat a bit, "unless they wanted to kill you and just were interrupted when Buffy, Xander and me came looking for you… Now I feel bad that it took me so long to realize you'd been gone for too long…"

"Never mind that", Pat shrugged it off, giving her a calming smile, obviously already calming down from the discomfort the relived memory had given her, "even though they did do some damage, I could heal it all, so no worries."

"I know", Willow gave back, smiling slightly again now, "but still… It was quite the shock to find you there like that, all bloodied and beaten up…"

"I imagine", Pat grimaced, but before she could anything else, the sound of the doorbell echoed through the apartment, prompting the couple to exchanged a surprised glance.

"Are you expecting anyone?" they both then asked in perfect unison; this was more than enough of an answer to the question as well, and after exchanging another look, they both got up and made their way to the door, the demon already preparing herself for a possible attack while next to her, Willow was readying one of her offensive spells, magic that would throw a possible attacker backwards and, hopefully, against the wall, hard enough to at least stun him.

With her whole body quite tense, Pat unlocked the door and opened it; moments later, her good eye went wide, and a small, disbelieving noise escaped her, making the redhead look at her, startled. It was hard for her to figure out why the demon would react like that to the two people standing in front of the door; she was sure that she never had seen them before, and if they were people from her girlfriend's past, they surely took seeing her quite easily, neither the small, chubby man nor the slightly taller, slim woman right next to him appearing as if they wanted to attack anytime soon.

"Told ya she wouldn't be expectin' us", the man now said to his companion, looking at her; unimpressed, the woman shrugged, smiling up at Pat, not even glancing at the man beside her when she answered. "Well, now she knows we are here. Hi, Pat! Long time no see!"

"Um", the demon brought out in reply, still looking stunned, to Willow's great surprise – she hardly ever had seen her partner like this, after all, "hi…"

"One would think you'd be a bit more enthusiastic to see your old pals", the man reprimanded, smiling slightly though to take some of the force of his words away. "Won't let us come in?"

"Um, sure", the taller woman replied after a few seconds, stepping aside; the two entered, taking off their shoes and jackets, then the man turned and looked at Willow, smiling at her from ear to ear.

"And you must be the witch!" he almost announced, nearly making the redhead step back at his enthusiasm, "the one who famously made our ol' buddy here see the error of her ways! Or something…"

"Uh, I guess so", she replied, not sure what to think of this and wondering if Pat really knew those strange guys – while the chubby man was still grinning at her, his companion was just standing there, looking around, as if the small anteroom was full of the most fascinating objects. "I'm Willow", she then added, "so you won't have to call me the witch all the time…"

"I'm Jim, and my fascinated friend here is Sue", the man beamed in reply, holding his hand out to her, and for the first time, she noticed something quite peculiar about him – his short hair wasn't just brown, as she had thought at the first glance, but streaked with a deep green, and a quick glance told her that the much longer hair of his female friend was not just merely black, but lightened up by several bright blue strands, a style quite similar to Pat's.

"You're like her", she suddenly realized, not able to believe that figuring this out had taken her so long, "demons, right?"

"Right", Sue agreed, now finally looking at her, "did she never mention us? Shame on you, Pat…"

"No, I didn't", the taller demon muttered, still looking dumbstruck, "and I never would have thought I'd see any of you again… Is Jane around, too?"

"She'll drop by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow", Jim answered, "she said something about having a job to do…"

"Killing someone?" Willow wanted to know before she could stop herself; to her astonishment, the chubby man chuckled, then shook his head, beaming at her afterwards.

"We're not assassins, like your girl here used to be", he then let her know, "so no worries about that, you won't need to call your Slayer friend to keep us in check or something."

"Good then, I guess", the witch smiled at him, finding it hard to not like this man, with his amiable behaviour and the cheerful smile he still was having on his face, "but let's not stand around here, why don't we all sit down… Coffee, anyone?"

"Yes please, with lots of sugar", Jim gave back at once while he followed the redhead into the living room and sat down there, Sue and Pat joining him there a moment later, the taller demon still looking slightly overwhelmed by the unexpected visit; giggling, Willow looked at the chubby man, asking him if this was some kind of demon thing, since her partner drank her coffee just the same way.

"No", Sue was the one to answer that, sitting down in what was normally Pat's favourite armchair and propping one leg over the armrest, "I don't take sugar in my coffee, I think it's gross."

"That's because you have no taste", Pat replied at once, and from the way Jim burst into laughter at hearing those words, Willow figured that this had been some sort of weird inside joke while they still had been a group, doing God knew what.

"Why did you come here?" the black haired woman went on, obviously getting over her shock since she was returning to her at times quite blunt self, "we haven't had contact for decades, and now you show up on my doorstep? What's this about?"

"Someone's after you", Jim gave back, just as blunt as the taller woman, his words prompting Willow to stop in mid-movement on her way to the kitchen and to turn so she could look at him in shock.

"You've already been attacked, haven't you", Sue threw in before anyone else had the chance to say something; clearly surprised, Pat looked at her, then nodded after a moment, frowning slightly when she replied. "Yeah, but how would you know? Have you been keeping tabs on me or what?"

"You know how she is", Jim shrugged it off, but Sue still found it necessary to answer, her reply making the demon roll her good eye. "The wind told me, as he does so often…"

"Some things never change", Pat mumbled to herself, while Willow's shock turned into confusion as she asked herself what exactly was going on.

"Nope", Jim agreed before the redhead could ask anything, smirking at the taller woman – before he found a pack of cigarettes and got one of them out, then started patting his pockets, looking increasingly desperate.

"Nope, indeed", Pat sighed out, then snapped her fingers and made a flame appear, holding her hand out to the chubby man afterwards, smirking slightly at the thankful look he gave her while he lit up his cigarette.

"I swear I still had it when we came here", he grumbled after a long drag, then finally seemed to notice that by now, Willow was looking at the three of them with astonishment and chuckled again, a twinkle in his eyes when he spoke on. "I think we should put the coffee on hold for a while and give a few explanations to your girlfriend, she looks quite confused."

"That would be nice", Willow agreed, then moved to sit next to her partner, something which required quite a bit of shuffling on the couch from both Jim and Pat, but was managed eventually.

"Storytime, then", Jim smiled, gleefully rubbing his hands together before he looked at the demon beside him, asking her with a smirk if she wanted to tell the tale or if he should; shrugging, Pat told him to go on, and he smirked in reply before he took a long drag of his cigarette, then finally started to talk, the redhead soon finding herself engrossed by the tale he was spinning for her.


	6. Chapter 6

"As you realized by now, we all know each other, and we used to hang around together for quite some time, some fifty years ago or so", Jim started, smiling amiably at Willow and almost automatically making her smile back.

"It was the natural thing to do, back then", he continued after taking another drag from his cigarette, "even though I have to say, I also quite enjoyed it to live with three ladies." He grinned at the two other demons in the room, and to the witch's amusement, Pat let out a slight snort as an answer to that, making the chubby man chuckle.

"There's a fourth member of our group, she'll drop by later", he then added, obviously forgetting that Pat had asked just that not all too long ago, "and, well, what can I say… The four of us just worked together perfectly fine. We… complemented each other."

"It's the elements, isn't it", Willow realized at hearing those words, looking from him to her girlfriend and on to the third woman in the room, who was smiling a slightly dopey smile at her. "Each of you had another one…"

"You got a smart one there", Jim commented, smiling at Pat, "but, well, it's not really surprising, you never could stand being around stupid people for too long."

Pat let out an agreeing grunting noise, making her partner smile again, the demon smiling back at her when she reached over to grasp her hand, the gesture not unnoticed by the two others.

"That's exactly how it is", Jim went on after a moment, now looking at Willow again, "can you also figure out who has which?"

"Shouldn't be too hard, your hair kinda gives it away", the redhead smirked in reply, making him chuckle again, "but I'll humour you, if you like. Obviously I don't need to mention Pat, I know what she can do, Sue here said something about the wind talking to her, so I assume she's air, and since your hair is brown and green, I'll take it you have earth. Right?"

"Right", Jim smirked, obviously impressed, "and our missing buddy uses ice. Quite impressive, eh?"

"Kinda like in a comic book", Willow gave back, giggling when next to her, Pat let out a groan, then told her not to start with the X-Men again, prompting the other two demons to give them curious looks.

"Nevermind", Pat quickly said before Willow could give an explanation, "why don't you go on?"

"Sure", Jim shrugged after a moment, making a mental note to ask the redhead later, "well, as I said, we'd been a team for quite some time back then, it just worked out so nicely, you know? But we didn't go around assassinating people, that wasn't our gig."

"I'd stopped working in that line for a while when I met those other guys", Pat explained upon Willow's curious look into her direction, "we did… other stuff to get cash. No killings, they all were against that, but not exactly legal, either."

"But why did you go back to being an assassin, then?" the redhead demanded to know, frowning. "Obviously, those guys stayed together, and you left? To kill people again?"

"Kinda", Pat sighed, now looking slightly uncomfortable – after all, Willow and she hardly ever had talked about her past, and she still wasn't all too sure if she really wanted her loved one to know everything about those times of her life.

"To quote a famous, and very good, movie", Jim took over, to the demon's obvious relief, "she was made an offer she couldn't refuse. We had quite the big fight over that back then, but in the end, she did it and our little group of demons broke apart."

"And you haven't seen each other since then?" Willow demanded to know, sounding stunned, "for fifty years?"

"Forty-four, to be exact", Sue was the one to answer that, "I counted. I was sad when you left, Pat. Then the wind told me what you are doing now, and I was happy again." She smiled her dopey smile again while Jim chuckled and nodded, giving the demon next to him an approving look afterwards.

"When those news reached us, I could hardly believe them", he then let her know, making her snort again. "You, of all people, ending up falling for someone and so, fighting side by side with the Slayer instead of killing people for money? At first, I thought someone's making that shit up, but then, we heard more and more about what you're doing here, and so, I finally had to start believing all those tales."

"Yeah, well, what can I say", Pat replied, briefly looking at Willow again, the warmth in her gaze making the witch smile, "in the end, it was a choice between being with her and not being with her, and that was easy to make."

"Awww", Willow cooed, while the other two smiled at the cute sight for a moment, then Jim cleared his throat and regained their attention, sounding serious when he spoke up again.

"Well, as sweet as that is, you surely know that you also made a lot of enemies with that choice", he let the demon know, not really telling her anything new though, "and now, at least one of them decided to act. Hence why you had your ass kicked by a bunch of guys the other night."

"So that wasn't random after all", Willow commented, giving her partner a strict look, "just as I said! And if we hadn't come to look for you…" She trailed off at the awful implications, and immediately, the demon gave her hand a tender squeeze, both Sue and Jim watching their interactions with interest.

"But you did", Pat now told her, the soothing tone in her voice making Jim raise an eyebrow while Sue started showing her dopey smile again, "so any What Ifs don't matter. And now that I know for sure someone's after me, I'll be able to handle it."

"And we'll help", Sue threw in before the witch could reply anything, making them both look at her, "this is why we came here, not just to warn you, but to help."

"Why?" Pat demanded to know in reply, the bluntness of the question startling Willow a bit, "after all these years? Why would you care?"

"To be blunt, we wouldn't if you'd gotten into this due to your previous line of work", Jim gave back, as blunt as he had announced it would be, "but seeing the current situation, we all decided that we'd come to help, it'd be a shame if the Slayer lost such a valuable fighter… and if your sweet girl here lost you."

"So you approve of… this?" Willow wanted to know, feeling slightly stunned, "you're the first demons who do, then. All others wanna see all of us dead as fast as possible."

"Well, none of us has always been a demon", Jim shrugged, "and just because we were made demons, doesn't mean we must be evil. Am I right?"

"I guess so", the redhead gave back, not sure what to think of this, and not liking the thought that, when she had been made a demon, her partner had ended up being evil simply because she could, and not because of some sort of compulsion that came along with the curse that had changed her.

Smiling at her, Jim held her gaze for a moment, making her wonder if he knew what was going on in her mind now; then, he rose from his seat, focusing on Sue, sounding casual when he spoke up again. "We should go now and give them some privacy, what do you say?"

"Sure", Sue agreed at once, coming to her feet as well; the chubby man briefly smirked at the way she kept looking around the living room, fascinated by all the stuff there, then turned towards Pat again, removing his shockingly huge and thick wallet from his pocket and getting a piece of paper from the depths within.

"Here", he stated while the demon accepted the paper, "there's our address, we rented a flat not far from here, and our cell phone numbers. Contact us in case anything happens. Or if you just wanna hang out."

"You should come to Buffy's place today", Willow suddenly remembered the meeting they had settled with the Slayer for later on, "she should know about this, as well. Wait, I'll write down the address…" Quickly, she found one of her notebooks and a pen, scribbling Buffy's address on one of the few empty pages before she tore it out and handed it to Jim; she told him that they'd meet there at three o'clock, both the chubby man and Sue nodding in agreement before they said their goodbyes and left, giving the couple a chance to talk about all they just had learned.

* * *

"I never knew you spent six years with a bunch of demons like that", Willow finally broke the silence a few minutes after the two had left, "from what you told me about your past, I always had the impression you preferred to work and live alone."

"I did, mostly", Pat gave back, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, "and, as you heard, it didn't work out with them in the end."

"Was it really an offer you couldn't refuse, or did you simply miss killing?" Willow dared to ask after pondering how to phrase that question so it wouldn't accidentally offend her girlfriend; to her surprise, the demon smiled slightly in reply, then put the cigarette in the ashtray and pulled the redhead into an embrace, her voice down to a low murmur when she replied. "It was a very good offer, but as you know by now, I also get cranky if I don't get to beat anything up for too long, and that was pretty much the case back then, too. If you're worried now though that I'm gonna ditch you someday so I can kill people again – that won't happen."

"If that's what you'd want, I think you would have done it by now", the redhead gave back, successfully ignoring the fact that their relationship so far hadn't reached the span of time the taller woman had spent with the other demons, "it was just… I don't even know how to say that."

"Just give it a try", Pat encouraged, "I promise I won't get grumpy or mad, whatever it is."

"Well", Willow finally started again, after sorting her thoughts for another moment, "to be honest, it was a bit unsettling to hear that those guys were made into demons the same way as you were, and you started to kill people for money while they… didn't. I know we hardly ever talk about that, and I don't even want to imagine what it might say about me that most of the time, I manage to ignore that pretty well, but still…"

"I wish I could give you the perfect reason for that now", Pat sighed out in reply, "but I can't, and I won't lie and try to make one up. You know, when I was made a demon, that need for… violence, it came with the whole package, and I just acted on it. I still do, just with different targets."

"I know", Willow gave back, smiling a bit again, thanks to the honest answer of her partner; to her slight dismay, the demon didn't return her smile though, but let out another sigh, her tone fully serious again when she replied. "I guess the guys just had better self control than I did… Well, for a while, I had it too, during the time I hung out with them, but in the end… Their little stints to get money weren't enough for me, obviously, and neither was their friendship."

"But they don't hold that against you", the witch pointed out, now feeling a bit bad since obviously, her words had brought that discomfort to her partner, "or they wouldn't have come here to help."

"Good point", Pat had to admit, now, to the redhead's relief, smiling slightly again as well, "and… you're not freaked about what you just heard from Jim?"

"I was a tiny bit when he said it", Willow admitted, figuring that now, it was her turn for total honesty, "as you noticed. But, well… when we got together, I knew what you are, what you'd been doing, and I've handled it. I'll keep on doing just that, it's in the past and you changed, and you mean so much to me… I don't want this to come between us."

"It won't if it's up to me", Pat reassured her at once, then seemed to remember her cigarette, since she snatched it up and took a long drag from it; the way she swallowed heavily afterwards made it clear to Willow though that this just had been a way to buy time, and that she now was about to say something which made her uncomfortable, the redhead nearly holding her breath as she waited for the words to come.

"I don't regret what I did before I met you", she finally started, fidgeting on the couch slightly, "as you know. Getting together with you was what made me quit that line of work, but if it hadn't been for you, I'd still be doing it."

Not sure if she should reply anything, or if that might destroy the bit of courage the demon obviously had built up to say this, Willow just nodded after a moment, then waited for her partner to go on, something she finally did after taking another, quite long drag from her cigarette.

"Being part of that little group was what made me stop back then, too, but in the end, their friendship wasn't enough to make me stop permanently", she stated quite bluntly, holding the witch's gaze as she went on. "But… what I feel for you, what we have… It is enough. _You_ are."

"Not to mention that you get to beat up things regularly thanks to Buffy", Willow giggled, making the demon smirk and nod as well – before the witch grew serious again, a sparkle in her eyes though that showed how much those words had touched her.

"I'm glad you just told me that", she let her partner know, "and it means so much to me… You mean so much to me. If one day you'd just decide to up and leave and go back to that life you had before we met…"

"I'd never do that to you", Pat sincerely reassured her, then gave her a lopsided smirk, moving one hand to tenderly run it through her hair, "hurt you like that. I love you too much, I could never do that to you, even though I know I don't tell you that often enough…"

"I love you, too", Willow replied at once, all of her worries about the day's revelations puffed away into nothingness, "and don't worry about not telling me often enough. You show me more than enough, Sweetie…"

This made the demon smile much more whole-heartedly, and the redhead took a moment to smile back at her – before she leaned in for a tender, but long kiss, all her concerns and worries about the things Jim had said forgotten the moment she tasted her loved one's lips on hers.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: As I won't be home from tomorrow morning until Friday afternoon, I'll post this chapter a day earlier than usual. Enjoy :)

* * *

Several hours later, the couple was on their way to Buffy's home; while they walked from their apartment to the Slayer's house, Willow entertained herself and her partner by imagining how Buffy might react to the arrival of an earth and an air demon, giggling to herself when she remembered the peculiar behaviour of the latter.

"Has this Sue always been like that?" she demanded to know, smiling up at the taller woman beside her, "she seemed kinda… well, excuse the horribly lame pun, but like an airhead."

Chuckling, the demon nodded in reply, still smirking when she replied, her words making the redhead giggle once more as well. "Yeah, she's always been like that, it can get quite tiring, and no one knows about how much of this 'The wind told me' thing is actually true or if she's just saying that whenever she heard gossip. We've never been able to figure it out, even though God knows we tried."

"I can imagine that this might get a bit tiring", the witch smiled, "but maybe that's one of her powers, the wind thing I mean. Like your healing powers when you're demoned out."

"Could be", Pat shrugged, "as I said, we never found out. We're all capable of healing in our demonic forms though, so it'd be kinda like an extra for her, which would be unfair."

"True", Willow agreed, "but it'd be interesting to find out."

"Good luck with that", the demon chuckled, making her partner laugh once more as well; then, she briefly stopped walking to pull the black haired woman down for a quick kiss, smiling up at her again afterwards.

"You know", she stated as they continued walking, "I know this will sound so weird now, but I wonder if we'll all end up in a fight. I'd like to see how your buddies use their powers."

"Oh, that used to be a lot of fun when we were still all hanging out together", Pat gave back at once, not really surprising her, "especially by the time we all knew about each other's strengths and weaknesses. Hardly anyone ever stood a chance if they had to face all four of us."

"The Fantastic Four", Willow giggled, unable to hold back the words, her giggle turning into laughter when Pat let out a snort in reply, then reprimanded her for constantly making connections to various comic heroes.

"Sorry", the witch apologized, still laughing, "I just can't help it. But better get used to it, Xander surely will have a thing or two to say about that new situation."

"I can't wait", Pat dryly replied, making her partner laugh once more; then, they arrived at Buffy's house and Willow quickly put on a straight face, not wanting to give away too soon that something was up.

"Let's wait with telling her until they arrived", she instructed her partner, making her raise an eyebrow in amusement, but also nod in agreement; she took in another deep breath to calm herself down, then finally rang the doorbell, hearing the hurried approach of footsteps moments later.

"Hi!" Buffy greeted enthusiastically the moment she had opened the door wide enough so she could see the couple, "come on in, I made coffee, you surely will want some?"

"Sure", Pat gave back at once, entering the house and taking off her shoes and jacket, Willow doing the same right next to her; beaming at them, clearly happy about their visit, Buffy asked them to sit down in the living room and that she'd be there in a second, a relieved sigh escaping the redhead when she entered said room and saw her presents lying on the table there.

"Thank you so much for taking that stuff with you", she called out to Buffy, "it'd be a shame if they all had been stolen or something…"

"Luckily, you had honest guests", the blonde's voice came from the kitchen, accompanied by clattering as she readied everything for the coffee, "they didn't even take the gift certificate for the Magic Box, even though that would have been easy to smuggle outside."

"They probably didn't want to deal with Anya", Pat commented to that, making Willow giggle momentarily – before she gave her a strict look and scolded her, reminding her of the fact that Anya was their friend.

"I wonder if your friends will be here on time", she then whispered, checking her watch and seeing that it was nearly three o'clock; as if that had been some sort of cue, the doorbell rang, and the two grinned at each other when Buffy called out to them. "Did you invite anyone else? I know Dawn and me didn't!"

"Kinda", Willow gave back, already getting up from her seat, "but don't get annoyed or something, we'll explain…"

"Alright", Buffy replied amiably, "the more the merrier! How many more are we talking about? Thinking about the cups here."

"Two more", Pat was the one to answer that while Willow went to open the door; a minute later, she came back inside with Jim and Sue in tow, and when Buffy entered the living room five minutes later, carrying a tray with a coffee can and all they'd need to drink it on it, she gave them a curious look, didn't have the chance to say anything though, since Jim immediately spoke up.

"You must be the famous Buffy, Slayer of vampires and demons!" the chubby man almost cried out, jumping up from his seat on the couch with enough force to make Sue next to him bounce a bit, "how nice to meet you!"

"Um, my pleasure, I guess", the blonde replied, taken a bit aback by this enthusiastic greeting, "and you are…?"

"They're friends of mine", Pat threw in before he could answer, "this apparently hyper guy is Jim, and she's Sue. Hey Jim, did you get your hands on cookies again?"

"No", Jim replied, now sounding indignant, "I'm just happy to meet one of the people who helped you become a better person… demon… Whatever, you get my point!"

"Friends of yours, and they know about you", Buffy pondered out loud, "and, obviously, about me, so… You two are demons, as well?"

"Now that was a fast conclusion and one not anyone would be able to follow", Jim smirked, "but as you're the Slayer, obviously, you have certain experience. And of course you're right."

"I'm good at recognizing demons", Buffy gave back, taking the arrival of two more demons surprisingly easy, "and since you're all sitting here and are not fighting, I assume that you are not after any of us?"

"No, they aren't", Pat was the one to answer that, "but someone's after me, and they came here to warn me, and to help. Hence yesterday's ass kicking."

"It would have been too easy if it just had been random", Buffy sighed, then finally remembered the tray in her hands and put it down, gesturing at it and telling her guests to help themselves before she made herself comfortable as well, prompting Jim to let himself fall down on the sofa, Sue letting out a little noise of dismay when he ended up nearly sitting on her.

"Sorry", he apologized, then busied himself with pouring coffee into his cup and adding milk and sugar; while the others did the same, he started talking again, clearly viewing himself as some sort of spokesperson in the current situation.

"Yup, our flamey friend here is right, someone's after her", he confirmed once more, "and we came here to help. One of us is still on the road, but she'll drop by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. And before you ask who is after her, we don't know."

"The wind didn't tell me that", Sue threw in, staring into her cup as she dreamily stirred the coffee – even though she hadn't put sugar into it, as Willow had noted – and thus neither noticing how Buffy threw her a disbelieving glance, nor how Pat mouthed "I'll explain later" in response.

"Whoever they are", Jim now went on, "they surely aren't all too familiar with Pat and what she can do, or they would have known that merely beating her up won't do the job."

"Well, they'll take more drastic measures once they realize their first attempt didn't work out", Buffy gave back, "so that's not exactly calming. How do we find out who is behind this?"

"Don't ask me for an enemy list or anything, because after I worked with you for so long, it'd simply say 'All demons and vampires except for my three friends'", Pat sighed out, for the first time looking a bit dismayed about the situation as she realized how dire it might become before it could be resolved.

"We better figure this out quickly", Willow mumbled between sips of coffee, even though just like the rest of the small group, she had no idea how to just that so far either, "I don't think just waiting for someone to attack Pat again is an… oh Buffy!" The last two words came as a startled outcry as she had noticed the expression on the Slayer's face – the last time she had looked like that, the redhead had ended up wearing a corset and walking into a bar full of vampires, pretending to be her own evil vampire doppelganger.

"Buffy, no", the witch went on while Pat and the other demons just exchanged clueless looks, even Sue paying attention now, "that is not an option!"

"Do we have any other ideas?" the Slayer defended her facial expression, sighing when in reply, all Willow could do was stare at her, giving her best to sound soothing when she spoke on. "Look, I know you don't like it, and I know it's dangerous, but I don't see how else we could figure this out."

"Damn right I don't like it", the witch grumbled as an answer, and finally, at least Pat caught up, since she frowned, then looked at the Slayer, not sounding all too worried though when she spoke up. "That's what you wanna do, right. Just wait until someone attacks, and then try and grab them or something and make them talk."

"Something like that", Buffy admitted, successfully ignoring it when Jim and Sue gave her looks of disbelief, "and, as I said, any other ideas, anyone? As long as we don't have the slightest clue who is behind that, I don't see how else we could figure that out."

"I'm afraid you're right", Pat sighed, shrugging when Willow let out an unarticulated noise of disbelief next to her and stared at her.

"I'd doubt the sincerity of the friendship between Buffy and you after this suggestion, but unfortunately, I can't see another way either", Jim mumbled while the witch still tried to find a reply, nearly shrinking in his seat when she threw him a withering glare in reply. "Sorry", he hurriedly added, "but really, we know nothing about this guy, or those guys, or whatever it is. And unless the wind tells Sue more, we won't find out until we manage to grab one of them."

"…I know", Willow finally admitted, after a few seconds had ticked by in tense silence, "but… Sweetie, I don't want you to get hurt…"

"It'll be okay", Pat reassured her at once, moving closer to her so she could put one arm around her, "we'll work out how to do it so you guys will be around and can help the moment something happens."

"If only we knew when they'd try something next", Jim pondered out loud in reply, "then we could at least make a tiny plan."

"The wind says they won't wait long", Sue almost sang in reply, beaming when they all looked at her, "they are keen on sending you to the next world, my fiery friend!"

"That's calming to know", Pat muttered, giving the smaller woman a sour look; Sue just kept beaming at her, then clearly lost interest, since she raised one hand, palm upwards, and made a tiny tornado appear on it, watching how it twirled and danced on her palm while Buffy and Willow stared with wide eyes.

"Please don't let that grow any bigger", the Slayer finally brought out, making the air demon look at her, "we just had quite the damage done to the house not all too long ago."

"We know all about that", Jim let her know while Sue just smiled, then focused on her small tornado again, "as I already told Pat, lots of your shenanigans are spread in the demon world. I was sorry to hear about your eye by the way, mate." With those words, he looked at the black haired woman, smirking when she shrugged it off and told him that by now, she had gotten used to it anyway.

"Ever the thick-headed fighter", he then commented, "you really represent your element well."

"That's probably also the reason for her temper, isn't it", Buffy giggled, shrugging at the look the demon threw her for that, her giggle only increasing when Jim grinned widely and nodded, prompting Pat to let out a huff and cross her arms over her chest.

"If we are done discussing my temper and my element, then", she finally managed to throw in, between giggle fits of Buffy and hearty snorts from Jim, "maybe we should focus on the topic at hand again, namely some unknown person or persons out to kill me."

"Well, they probably won't try anything if we all are with you", Buffy pointed out, giving her best to ignore the worried look on Willow's face, "when we were at the Bronze, they waited until you came outside and tried then."

"So you want me to go somewhere alone?" Pat spun the thought further, "we've tried that before, remember, and it didn't work."

"I remember it well", Buffy let her know, "but that doesn't mean it won't work again."

"I'm not letting her get into danger all alone", Willow finally spoke up again, with the famous "Resolve Face" expression on her face which made it clear to anyone who knew her that she wasn't willing to discuss this, "at least let me go with her."

"No", the demon herself was the one to answer that, giving her partner a strict look which almost managed to rival the Resolve Face, "if they attack while you are there with me, you're in danger of getting hurt as well, and I'm not letting that happen."

"But…" Willow started to protest, shocked that for once, her Resolve Face wasn't doing its job, only to end up cut off when Pat shook her head, with her very own version of that particular look on her face.

"It's bad enough that I'll have to run around with a target painted on my back", she then stated, "but unlike you, I can heal, and I'm not sure I'd be able to do that healing power borrowing spell correctly, should you end up on the ground hurt and bleeding. I'm not putting you into the line of fire because someone wants my head."

"I agree with Pat", Jim said, making them all look at him, "even though I have no idea what you were talking about with borrowing your healing or something, but we are capable of healing faster and more drastic wounds than you, you know."

"I'll explain about the healing thing later", Pat gave back, "now let's come up with a way to make those charming guys come after me once more, so we know whom to go after."

Even though she still looked more than unhappy about the whole idea, Willow didn't protest anymore when they started brainstorming, coming up with various ideas and ditching them again; she just sat there, holding her partner's hand and listening in silence, unable to shake off the feeling that this whole idea would end with in big disaster.


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note: So last week I posted a day early to avoid posting too late and now I'm a day late after all. To make up for it, here's a longer chapter – enjoy ;)

* * *

"I still don't like this", Willow sighed out quite some time later, looking out of the living room window of their apartment and studying the street outside; by now, dusk had settled over the city, and the street lights had flickered to life, throwing their circles of artificial light on the deserted sidewalk.

"I know", Pat's voice came from behind her, but she didn't turn around, merely smiling weakly when she felt the demon wrap her arms around her from behind, reaching up with one hand to place it on the taller woman's where they laid on her stomach, "but, well… You were there, we didn't come up with anything else…"

"Unfortunately", the redhead sighed, still studying the deserted streets outside, asking herself if this was just a surprisingly quiet evening or if by now, the residents of Sunnydale had caught up to what was going on in their town at night, "some brilliant mind I have, not even able to figure out a better solution than letting my girlfriend walk right into danger…"

"Stop that", Pat almost ordered her in reply, prompting her to let out a small sigh, "we sat together with two demons who have centuries of experience about such things, and they couldn't come up with anything either. Until we found out who exactly wants me dead, there's just no other way."

"I know", Willow muttered, looking down now, on where her hand laid on her partner's, for some reason suddenly thinking back to the moment she had grasped one of those hands for the first time, back in one of the lecture halls of UC Sunnydale, and how she had thought about what a strong grip Pat had had back then, "but… I'm just worried."

"I'd be concerned if you weren't", Pat gave back, and thanks to the reflection in the window, Willow could see that she was smirking slightly, "but I promise you that everything will be fine. Even if they do manage to attack and hurt me, you know that Jim and Sue are waiting within earshot, and Buffy's hiding out—"

Willow just had time to notice how her partner's good eye widened, something she also saw through the reflection in the window – and then Pat's hands shot up and to her shoulders and pushed her aside so harshly that she stumbled and fell, the cry she involuntarily let out mixing with the sound of shattering glass as the window broke.

"Jeez", she brought out once she had gotten over the shock of being manhandled by her partner that way, sitting up slowly and brushing shards of glass out of her hair, "what was…"

Her gaze fell on her partner, and her breath got caught in her throat; her eyes went wide, and all at once, the danger of glass shards on the ground was forgotten as she came to her feet as fast as she could and hurried to where Pat was struggling to get up, driven back a few feet from the window by the arrow that had hit her and now was protruding from her shoulder, blood dripping from her back to the ground, showing that it had gone all the way through.

"I'm okay, I'll be okay", the demon hurried to reassure her partner when she noticed the look of alarm and high concern on Willow's face, "just need to get up and… get that thing out… ow goddammit!"

"You're not okay!" Willow nearly shouted, then regained a bit of self control by taking in a few deep breaths and telling herself that at least, the demon was still conscious, "there's an arrow sticking out of your shoulder, so don't tell me you're okay…"

"Maybe 'okay' was a bit optimistic", the taller woman admitted after a moment, surprising the redhead with the fact that she still was conscious after taking such a hit, "but it didn't hit anything important… You're alright, aren't you?"

"I'm fine", Willow gave back, barely able to believe that her partner still found herself able to worry about her in such a situation, "but I'm not the one with an arrow through me! How can you be so calm right now?"

"I think I'm going into shock", Pat gave back, still sounding surprisingly calm, even though the way her face was paling rapidly showed that she wasn't far from the truth; for a few dreadful moments, Willow felt like the same was happening to her, finding herself completely unable to figure out how to react, then she did the first thing which came to her mind, namely grasping her partner's hand and sharply saying her name, feeling a bit relieved when the demon's gaze focused on her.

"Listen to me", she started, not sure what to say, not even sure if talking would help to keep the taller woman from slipping into shock even further and maybe falling unconscious, "stay here with me, alright? If you faint now, I'm gonna make you sleep on the couch, I swear…"

"Cruel", Pat panted in reply, and the redhead didn't like the sound of her breathing at all; it had become shallow and quick, not sounding like the breath of a healthy person at all, making it obvious after a few moments that they demon was close to hyperventilating.

"Hey", Willow quickly said, giving her best to sound soothing even though her heart sped up when she moved her free hand to her girlfriend's cheek and felt how cold the skin was, beads of cold sweat forming beneath her palm, "don't… don't breathe like that, come on, breathe like me…" Ignoring how silly this had to look, she started to take deep, slow breaths, hoping that Pat would do the same; and after a few more dreadful moments of panting heavily, she at least tried to do so, her skin still awfully cold and waxy as she struggled to stay awake.

"Willow!" the hectic voice of Buffy broke the rhythm all at once, sounding muffled since the Slayer had to shout through the locked apartment door, "are you alright in there? What happened?"

"Arrow", Willow called back, momentarily feeling torn between hurrying to let Buffy in and staying with the black haired woman, not wanting to let her out of her sight for a mere second, "Pat's been hit, I…" She shrieked when all at once, Sue appeared right next to her, bringing in a gust of wind through the open window, the redhead feeling as if her heart was now trying to jump out of her chest.

"Don't do that", she scolded once she had regained enough breath to speak while at the apartment door, Buffy now was banging against the wood, alarmed by the shout she had heard from her best friend, "go and let Buffy in, before she breaks the door down…"

To her relief, the air demon just nodded in response to that and hurried off; while she waited for her to come back with the Slayer, Willow focused on Pat again, alarmed to see that during the short time she had been distracted by Buffy and Sue, her skin had paled even further, now as white as a bed sheet.

"Hey", she tried again, squeezing the taller woman's hand, "still with me?" In response, Pat nodded weakly, then let out a small groan, the sound making Willow's heart clench up; to her relief, Buffy came hurrying into the room seconds later, with Sue right behind her, the Slayer's eyes widening when she spotted the demon on the ground and the arrow that stuck out of her back.

"Someone shot through the window", Willow explained, gesturing at said broken window, "Pat pushed me down and it hit her…"

"…it out", the demon now wheezed, still having difficulty with breathing properly, groaning again when they all looked at her, the blonde gulping audibly as she realized what Pat had been trying to say.

"I… I'm not sure if I…" she started, then Jim came rushing in behind her, huffing and puffing, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw his friend on the ground.

"Well", he then stated, as Willow and Buffy looked up at him while Sue was looking at the patterns the blood was forming in the carpet dreamily, "someone's really out to get you, old friend."

"No shit", Pat whispered as an answer, gritting her teeth as her gaze focused on him and she repeated what she had tried to tell Buffy just seconds ago. "Pull it out…"

"Right", Jim agreed at once, sounding surprisingly unperturbed now, "you know this is gonna hurt, so you might want something to bite on."

With those words, he already opened his belt and pulled it out of the loops, then made Pat do just that before he pulled her into a sitting position, Willow watching with her stomach turning how he at first grabbed as much of the arrow's shaft as he could, then broke it off, the taller woman already letting out a pained yelp at the motion this caused; he gave her an apologetic glance, then grabbed the part of the arrow which stuck out of her back and pulled, the pain causing her to bite down on the belt so hard that her jaw muscles moved visibly beneath the skin.

"Shht", Willow tried to soothe her, giving her best to ignore the awful noises the wood made as it was pulled through her partner's flesh, "it's almost out, hold on there, don't faint on me now… couch, remember?"

Before the demon could do anything to acknowledge that, the arrow came out fully, and she let out a muffled groan, still biting down on the belt; then, Sue moved closer and carefully removed it, making it possible for her to answer when Jim asked if she was up to getting to her feet already.

"Just a minute", she panted, some of the colour returning to her face, to Willow's great relief, "goddammit, fuck, that hurts!"

"Language", the witch automatically gave back, then flinched when Jim roared with laughter next to her, his eyes twinkling when he looked at her, still grinning from ear to ear.

"You do that every time she curses?" he then asked, making the redhead smile slightly as well while she nodded, the response making him laugh again.

"Bet you say that a lot then", he smirked once he had calmed down enough to talk again, his smirk widening when after a moment, the witch giggled and nodded, their conversation earning a dismayed grunt from Pat.

"May I remind you", she then pressed out, "that I'm still bleeding all over the carpet here? You could at least wait with making fun of me until I healed."

"Well, now that you're not close to fainting anymore, I just wanted to lighten the mood a bit", Jim defended his poor choice of timing, making the demon grunt again; she shifted slightly on the floor, then let out another groan as the movement brought fresh pain up in her wounds, and immediately, the smile was wiped off Willow's face.

"Did you see what exactly happened?" Buffy asked while her best friend started fussing over her girlfriend again, even though there wasn't exactly much she could do, her question directed at Jim and Sue; to her dismay, they both declined, the earth demon sounding thoughtful when he spoke up. "The shooter must have been sitting on some roof or something, judging from the angle with which the arrow hit her… It came flying straight at that window, not in a bow or anything."

"Wow, you're good", Buffy complimented, "but it's too bad you didn't see anything, either. I wonder if they'd planned that or if they were just lucky and saw you standing at the window…"

"I was standing in front of her", Willow realized all at once, looking up from her partner and at the Slayer, "so what if…?"

"It wasn't meant for you", Pat muttered, making them all glance at her again, "you'd been standing there for a while until I came to stand behind you, they would've had more than enough time to… shoot you during that time. Apparently they know me better than we thought, they knew I'd… push you away…"

"But what if you hadn't seen it?" Buffy demanded to know, exchanging worried glances with her best friend, "then it would have hit her…"

"I don't think they would have cared", the demon let her know, then asked her to help her up before she could reply anything; after a moment, Buffy did just that, taking a few steps once the demon was standing upright, not liking how she was swaying on her feet, but well aware of the fact that standing too close to her when she'd demon out was putting her into serious danger of getting third degree burns.

"It's been a while since I've seen that", Jim commented, smirking again; it unnerved Willow a bit that he was so jolly in such a situation, but on the other hand, that just seemed to be part of his personality, and thus she gave her best to ignore it while she watched her partner change, relief filling her when after a minute, the fleshy sounds which indicated healing came up.

"There", Pat grumbled once the sounds had stopped, "much better…" She briefly closed her good eye, then changed back, still grimacing in pain as she moved to the sofa and let herself fall down on it, Willow noticing that she even walked slower than usual and that she made sure to not move the arm which had been hurt around too much.

"I guess the plan for tonight is off, then", Buffy stated as soon as the demon had made herself comfortable and had found her cigarettes, lighting one of them up, "you probably don't feel like putting yourself on the line again right after that."

"No", Pat grumbled at once, "getting hurt once per night is enough, especially since it's the second night in a row."

"Well, I can't say I don't understand that", Buffy sighed out, then noticed that Jim was studying the arrow and raised an eyebrow at him, making him shrug slightly when he noticed her glance.

"There's too much blood on it to be sure", he then let her know, "but maybe there are some markings or something on that arrow which might tell us who shot. I'll take that along if you don't mind, just to check."

"Sure, go ahead", the Slayer shrugged, not sure why she would mind him doing that; he smiled, then tugged the two arrow halves into his pocket, making sure to do so with the arrowhead sticking out so he wouldn't accidentally poke himself with it.

"Well", he stated as soon as the arrow had been put away safely, "I suggest we give our flamey friend here some time to recover… We'll talk tomorrow?"

"I'll call you", Pat promised in reply, making him nod; he told her to keep her head up, making her smile slightly, then took careful hold of Sue and pulled her to her feet, the air demon still admiring the patterns of blood which now were drying on the carpet.

"I'll go, too", Buffy decided after a moment, "and Will, you take good care of her, alright? Don't let her move around too much, I can see she's still in pain."

"You know, I can hear you, that arrow didn't hit me in the ear", Pat grumbled at her, didn't try to deny what she had said though; Buffy just gave her a sweet smile, then briefly touched her best friend's shoulder reassuringly before she followed Jim and Sue outside, the couple alone again moments later, now with a broken window and bloodstains on the carpet, the only evidence left for the second attack on the demon.


	9. Chapter 9

"You know, I should make you sleep on the couch for scaring me like that after all", Willow let her partner know as she returned from the kitchen a few minutes after the two other demons and Buffy had left again, carrying two glasses of water; she put one down in front of Pat, smiling slightly at the flabbergasted look on the taller woman's face while she sat down, resisting the urge to snuggle as she could see that her loved one still was in quite some pain.

"When you nearly fainted there, I thought I'd do the same right next to you", she added after she had made herself comfortable, "not to mention how scary it was when you started to breathe like that and went all pale and clammy."

"But I didn't do that on purpose", Pat protested, frowning when Willow giggled a second later, shaking her head as she looked at the taller woman, her expression and voice tender when she replied. "I know, silly, I wasn't serious… Of course I won't make you sleep on the couch."

"Good to know", Pat sighed out, looking so relieved that Willow just had to laugh again, "I doubt that would have been comfortable anyway, my shoulder still hurts. Stupid arrow and stupid healing ability for not taking the pain away at once…"

"Be glad you have that ability", Willow scolded as an answer, giving her a strict look, "because if you hadn't, you'd be in the hospital right now."

"I know", the demon sighed out, "but it's still annoying."

"I imagine, poor you", the redhead showed some sympathy, "and getting hurt the second night in a row…"

"Let's hope there won't be a repeat performance tomorrow", Pat grumbled, looking towards the shattered window, "I'm really getting sick of losing blood every night, sooner or later, that can't be healthy anymore."

"Not to mention that your healing abilities might go into overload, no?" Willow wanted to know, looking worried again, "remember, that happened before, when we fought that gross slimey monster from that other dimension where we sent the horsemen of the apocalypse."

"Yeah, but it shouldn't happen with enough time between the healings", Pat gave back, obviously sure to calm her down again, "for it to go into overload, they'd need to hurt me much more, and over a longer span of time, while I'm demoned out."

"Somehow, that's not really calming me down", Willow sighed, finally giving in to the temptation and snuggling closer to her partner, even though she did so with exceeding care, not wanting to make her pain worse on accident, "but from what I gathered, Buffy still wants to go through with the initial plan tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah", Pat confirmed, sighing as well when she saw the expression on her partner's face. "I know you don't like it", she went on, "and I can't say I don't understand that, but unless Jim finds something on that arrow which tells us who shot it, we still don't have any other ideas."

"Let's hope he'll find something then", Willow mumbled, then craned her neck so she could look at her girlfriend, her worry for once forgotten as she thought of how Sue suddenly had appeared in the room behind her.

"What's the deal with that air demon?" she demanded to know, "can she actually fly? I can't see how else she could have gotten inside right after you'd been hit."

"She can't fly, exactly", the demon explained in reply, "just… kinda use short bursts of air to move herself upwards. That has been quite handy when we all were working together."

"I imagine", Willow giggled, "but she nearly gave me a heart attack when she suddenly stood right next to me! How does she use her powers in combat? Blow the enemies over?"

"Yeah", Pat smirked, making the witch laugh again, "or, if fighting outside, whirl up leaves and grass so they can't see properly. We were quite the team, back then…"

"I still want to see that", the witch smiled, making the taller woman smirk as well while she tightened her embrace around her a bit, glad that slowly, the pain in her shoulder and back was fading and making this possible.

"If whoever is after my ass doesn't give up anytime soon, you probably will", she then told her, "just make sure to stay out of the way then, it can get a little… intense."

"You better tell that to Buffy too, then", Willow advised, smiling when the demon nodded at once, "you know how she is, I'd rather do magic from the sidelines, but she likes to be in the middle of all the action."

"Just like me", Pat chuckled, making Willow smile and nod; afterwards, the couple exchanged a tender kiss, then the redhead asked her partner if she was up to having dinner, now that the plans for the evening had been cancelled, not surprised when she nodded at once.

"Let's see what we have here then", she suggested, getting up from her seat, "or if we'll have to order something…"

"Both fine for me", Pat shrugged, following her into the kitchen nonetheless; it didn't take long until they'd found something in the fridge they both felt like eating, and while they were preparing dinner together, Willow once more managed to push aside her worries about the danger her partner obviously was in, for the moment forgetting that someone was out there who wanted to see her dead – and obviously had no qualms about hurting her in the process, either.

* * *

In the next morning, Willow was, as so often, the first one to wake up; she took a few minutes to just lie there, enjoying the softness and warmth of the bed and the feeling of Pat's arm around her waist, the demon still slumbering soundly next to her, snoring into the pillow. Smiling at the cute sight, she rolled over so she could get a better look at her partner's face; even though as a demon, she technically didn't need as much sleep as regular humans, the black haired woman clearly enjoyed sleeping in, something Willow thus let her do whenever it was possible.

This time though, something seemed to disturb the peaceful slumber of the demon, as Willow noticed a minute later; her good eye was moving rapidly beneath the lid, and after a few moments, she even let out a small noise of dismay, making the witch frown to herself – in all the years they'd been together now, she'd never had witnessed her partner acting like that.

Not sure if she should try to wake Pat up or not, Willow scooted a bit closer to her, straining her ears when she noticed that now, the taller woman had started to mumble words under her breath, her heart skipping a beat when she finally was able to make them out and quickly realized what exactly her loved one was dreaming about.

"No", Pat mumbled, her already low voice muffled even further by the pillow, forcing the redhead to strain her ears quite much so she could make out the words properly, "down… get down…"

"Pat", the witch now decided that it was time to wake the demon up, reaching out and gently touching her shoulder, "wake up, you're having a bad dream…"

In response, the taller woman flinched visibly, prompting Willow to pull back her hand; moments later, their eyes met, the redhead smiling calmingly at her partner, reaching out again to caress her hair tenderly, giving her best to sound soothing when she spoke up again. "You must have had quite the bad dream, you were talking in your sleep, I've never heard you do that before."

"…yeah", the demon muttered after a few moments, seconds it had taken her to fully realize that she was awake and that she had been dreaming; shaking her head slightly as if to clear it, she sat up and ran both hands through her hair, prompting Willow to sit up as well, concern showing through her voice now when she asked her if she wanted to talk about it.

"Can't you guess?" Pat sighed in reply, looking at her, "of course I was too slow in that dream."

"It doesn't matter", the redhead replied at once, not surprised that her girlfriend's words had confirmed her suspicions about her nightmare, "you weren't too slow, and I'm perfectly fine."

"Yeah, but that was mostly luck", the demon argued, surprising her – after all, she hardly ever spent time with dwelling on "What If" scenarios, and it was startling that she would do so now.

"If I hadn't happened to see that arrowhead glint because of the streetlamps, I never would've seen it coming, and it would've hit you", Pat now told her, "and… I don't know, I'm just worried that one of these days, my luck will run out or I'll be too slow… Especially now, with some idiot out there who wants me dead and obviously doesn't mind if he hurts you in the process."

"Well, if you ever are too slow, or your luck runs out, I'll just to teach you that spell so you can lend your healing to me", Willow replied, giving her best to sound light-hearted, not wanting the demon to notice that she was quite worried about this as well, "then you can heal me and I'll be all fine and dandy again."

To her relief, the use of that phrase had just the effect she had intended, namely making Pat smile slightly; she nodded her agreement, then her smile faded again, the seriousness back in her voice when she replied. "Indeed, and I can't believe we didn't think of that until now. I want you to teach me today, right after breakfast."

"Sure", the redhead shrugged, "why not… And we didn't think of it so far because usually, during the fights, I stay away from it as much as I can, so I'm not in much danger of getting hurt."

"Still it's stupid", Pat grumbled, then lightened up again when the witch leaned in for a kiss, calming her down once more.

"I'll teach you after breakfast, as you said", she reassured her after the kiss, "you might need to use the ingredients I had to use when I'd just discovered the spell, but that won't matter, I still have more than enough of that stuff here, you know I don't need them anymore to do the spell… So you can practice, too."

"Um, maybe not", the demon replied after a moment, looking at her with a wry smirk, "remember I had to demon out twice in the last forty-eight hours to heal?"

"Oh, yes", Willow realized with a grimace, "alright, no practicing then… At least not until your wounds won't open up again."

"Yup", Pat agreed at once, "but you can at least teach me the words and I'll do it without the ingredients and without holding hands with you, then nothing should happen, right?"

Nodding, Willow smiled at her, glad that the idea of learning the spell obviously had calmed the taller woman down; this didn't really surprise her though, since her partner always had preferred it to take a pro-active role when push came to shove, and hated it to end up on the sidelines for whatever reason.

"Let's go and have breakfast now?" she suggested, "I feel like having ham and eggs today, how about you?"

"Sounds fine to me", Pat agreed, stealing another kiss before she got out of bed; Willow took a moment to let her gaze wander over her lover's body admirably, then did the same, pulling on the first set of clothing she found in her wardrobe, not really caring if it fit together or not, since it was just Pat and her, anyway.

Once they both had gotten dressed, they made their way into the kitchen together; there, Pat took care of the coffee again while Willow focused on the food, the demon now even humming to herself as she busied herself with the coffee machine, the redhead smiling slightly as she stopped her own work momentarily to watch her, touched by how much lighter the taller woman's mood was now that they had figured something out, in case she should get hurt.

"Don't let me forget, I need to call Jim after we did that spell training thing", Pat now stated, distracting her from her thoughts, "I wonder if he found anything on that arrow."

"Me too", Willow nodded, focusing on the pan again and cracking several eggs into it, now that the oil she had poured into it had gotten hot enough, "and if it'll be helpful."

"Hopefully", the demon commented, then found her cigarettes and lit one of them up before she moved to stand behind the witch, making her smile when she wrapped one arm around her waist, the redhead almost automatically leaning backwards and against her.

"Don't distract me", she muttered when she felt the taller woman nuzzle her neck, "or the food will burn and we won't have any."

"Then we'll order something, or make something else", Pat shrugged, did her the favour of stopping though, partly because she had to pull back so she could take a drag of her cigarette.

"But it'd be a pity to waste that", Willow scolded, now focusing fully on the pan again, "so you'll have to wait until after breakfast with doing that."

"Okay", the demon agreed at once, making the witch smile; it didn't take long until the food was done after this short exchange, and at about the same time, the coffee got done as well, the couple sitting down to enjoy their breakfast afterwards, smiling at each other over the table, enjoying the peaceful and calm atmosphere and each other's company, once more successfully ignoring the danger they still both might be in.


	10. Chapter 10

After breakfast had been eaten and Pat had smoked yet another cigarette, Willow declared that now, it was time for teaching the spell; immediately, the demon nodded, and the redhead moved her chair so she sat opposite to her, telling her to relax as much as possible before she started explaining.

"We've done magic together before, so you know it's important that you keep your calm when you try to do a spell", she began, making the taller woman nod, "that might be hard in case I'm on the ground and bleeding out, but if you're all freaked out, you're much more likely to mess up. Alright?"

"Alright", the black haired woman gave back at once, "I'll give my best to freak out after I managed to heal you, then."

"Yeah, then, you can freak out as much as you want", Willow giggled, then cleared her throat and grew serious again. "The words of the spell are quite simple", she let her partner know, "but the intonation is important, if you do it wrong, it might not work or work not the way it's supposed to. Okay, I'll say it so you know how it's supposed to sound and then you try, alright?"

Nodding, Pat gave her best to catch every small detail about how the spell had to be said when Willow recited it for her; once the witch had fallen silent and gave her an encouraging look, she repeated the spell word for word, not surprised when a few corrections were made by her partner afterwards.

It took several more tries until she got it right, and even then, they both knew that this didn't mean that the spell also would work perfectly in a stressful situation; since Pat had demoned out though the previous evening to heal the arrow wound, they knew it couldn't be tested until the next evening, when they could be sure that the injuries wouldn't open up again.

"I'll put the ingredients you'll need for the spell in a little bag or something, so you can carry them around in your pocket", Willow suggested after the demon had said the spell once more and had gotten it completely right, "then, all you have to do is put them into your palm or something and blow on them as hard as you can after the last word of the spell, then it should already start kicking in."

"Alright, thanks", Pat smiled, the redhead smiling back at her before she got up to find the ingredients and ready them for being taking along to future combats; while she did that, the black haired woman got out her cell phone and dialled the number Jim had written down for her, glad when the call was taken after the second ring and his jovial voice boomed through the speaker, making her grimace as she had forgotten that he sometimes lacked an indoor voice. "Yes, Jim here, who's there?"

"It's me", Pat greeted him, "Pat, and don't shout like that, man, I'm not deaf." In response, he laughed heartily, then apologized, well aware of how this often had ticked the taller woman off when they still had been working and living together.

"I'm happy you're calling", he let her know after the apology, "I did find some markings on that arrow, I wanted to call you and tell you, but then I realized I didn't have your number, and unfortunately, the wind wouldn't tell it to Sue."

"That's too bad", Pat chuckled while Willow moved to sit next to her and started to grind up a bunch of herbs for the spell, listening to what her partner was saying on the phone, "but well, here we are now, talking, so what did you find? Anything useful?"

"In fact, yes", Jim let her know, sounding so absurdly proud that she had to hold back a chuckle, "it's the mark of some sort of demon gang boss from outta town. He and his cronies are in your former line of work though, you know, so I guess someone else gave him the job."

"Well, that should be easier to find out, now that we have at least a tiny lead", the demon gave back, making Willow look up with excitement in her eyes, Pat briefly smiling at her before she focused on Jim again as he laughed once more.

"Indeed, I remember how convincing you can be", he then chuckled, "now we just need to find out where they are hangin' out when they're not out to kill you."

"Leave that to Willow", the demon replied at once, "just bring the arrow here as fast as you can, and she'll do a spell which will show us where they are hiding out."

Next to her, Willow nodded her agreement to that, smiling at her partner again; once more, Pat smiled back, then Jim told her that Sue and he would be there in half an hour, the demon giving her agreement to that before she hung up and beamed at her partner.

"He found some markings on the arrow", she then let her girlfriend know, "belonging to some demon gang boss, group of assassins apparently because Jim said they're in my former line of work. So someone must have hired them to get rid of me, but apparently, they are all amateurs, because I'm still alive."

"Which is good", Willow said at once, giving her partner a strict look, "you should be happy they obviously are not much good at their job."

"Yeah", Pat shrugged, "but back when I was still working, if I'd been sent to kill someone, they'd be dead by now. So it shouldn't be too hard to handle them once we found them… The arrow will help with that, right?"

"It's worth a try to use it for the locator spell", the redhead gave back at once, wondering if she hadn't seen her nod, "if Jim cleaned it properly, that is, if there's too much of your blood still on it, it might react to that and just point out you."

"Then we'll clean it and try again", the demon shrugged, "problem solved. Whew, I'm glad we finally are making some progress, if this works out, I don't need to go around tonight and hope that someone will attack me."

"I better call Buffy", Willow realized as an answer to that, "she should come here too, we might need her help if we'll go out to face those guys immediately."

Nodding, Pat still demanded a kiss before she let her make the call; after they had pulled apart again, the redhead got her own phone and called the Slayer while the demon lit up another cigarette, smirking to herself as she thought of the results the locator spell might bring and how this situation might be resolved sooner than any of them might think right now.

* * *

Forty minutes later, Jim, Sue and Buffy had all made themselves comfortable in the living room, drinking coffee Willow had provided for them while the demon was checking the arrow to make sure there wasn't too much blood on it so the spell would end up locating her and the redhead was preparing everything for the spell itself, spreading a map of Sunnydale on the table and readying the ingredients.

"Let's hope they're staying somewhere here in town", she commented while she did so, making the others nod, "I'm not sure what the spell will do if they aren't, we've never had that before."

"From what I know, they put some sort of headquarter in a town when they are sent there", Jim helpfully let her know, beaming at her, making her wonder how he could always be so cheerful – and how the mornings had looked like when Pat had still be living with the group, seeing how grouchy she was in the morning while this man apparently got up and felt good and ready to talk.

Making a mental note to herself to ask him about that when she'd have the chance, the witch got done with preparing everything for the spell by lining up the ingredients; she sat down at the table, then took the arrow from her partner and used a small knife to scrape some of its wood into the bowl she would use for the ingredients, looking at Pat afterwards.

"You know when to give me fire, right?" she wanted to know, smiling when at once, the demon nodded; she moved to sit beside her so aiming at the bowl would be easier, then the room fell quiet as Willow started to mumble the spell, putting the ingredients into the bowl one by one, even Sue paying attention on the process, watching with round eyes, even her mouth slightly agape.

The moment she had said the last word and had thrown the last herb into the bowl, Pat let one hand flame up and made a lazy flicking gesture into the general direction of said bowl; a tiny ball of fire flew from her fingers and landed right in the middle of the ingredients, all of them puffing away into nothingness with an audible _foomph_, a thick column of white smoke rising to the ceiling moments later.

Holding their breaths, they all watched how the smoke kept curling towards the ceiling for a few more moments, then, defying all laws of physics, moved downwards and spread over the map; and another half a minute later, a small glowing light appeared there, Willow letting out a "Yes!" when she looked at the exact location and saw that it was not the apartment of Pat and her.

"You did it", Pat beamed next to her, pulling her into an embrace with such fierceness that the witch involuntarily let out a little squeal, then laughed, "once again, you did it, that's my girl."

Still laughing, Willow nodded and beamed at her, the others watching with smiles on their faces as well; then, Buffy leaned forward and studied the map, frowning slightly to herself when she saw the location the spell had pointed out.

"That's an office building", she let the others know, looking up at them again, "do you think they rented space there or what?"

"Could be", Jim shrugged, "why don't we go there and find out?"

"Good idea", Pat agreed at once, "and we better take some weapons along, just in case. Easily concealable ones, though…"

"No axe for you, then", Willow stated at once, giggling at the way her girlfriend's face fell; with a sigh, Pat nodded, then got up and asked Buffy to come with her, so they could check out her weapon collection and arm themselves, the Slayer following her gladly enough while Jim and Sue remained where the were, explaining that weapons weren't their strong side when they noticed Willow's curious look at them.

"Plus, we don't really need weapons to fight", the chubby man then added, smiling at her – before he scooted a bit closer to her on the couch, keeping his voice low so Buffy and Pat wouldn't hear him in the adjoining room.

"You know", he started, for once not sounding jolly, but serious, "when we first heard that stories of Pat hooking up with someone and ending up fighting side by side with the Slayer, we really couldn't believe it. But… now that I've seen how she's acting with you… I think you're the best thing that ever could have happened to her."

"Oh", Willow brought out after a few moments of stunned silence, "wow… thanks… I really don't know what to say now."

"You don't need to say anything", Jim reassured her at once, "and we shouldn't talk too long about that anyway, I don't want her to walk in on us talking about that, she'd get all flustered, you know how she is, right? Just wanted to tell you this, now that it's just us."

"Thanks again", the redhead gave back, feeling how hot her cheeks were and knowing that she was blushing, "I have no idea how she was before we got together, so it means a lot to hear that…"

"You brought out her human again", Sue said in a dreamy voice, "I was sad when she left us and I was happy when we came here to see her, but how I'm even happier."

She beamed at the witch, and after a moment, Willow smiled back; then, the door leading to the bedroom opened again and Buffy and Pat came back out, both of them, to the surprise of the others, armed with swords now.

"Didn't you say something about weapons which can be concealed easily?" Jim finally asked, raising an eyebrow when both the Slayer and the demon grinned in reply.

"That's what coats are for", Buffy then explained, "luckily, the weather's cool enough so it won't look strange."

"Not that we're not strange looking enough already", Willow commented with a giggle, and the blonde had to admit that she had a point – after all, a group of four women and one man, three of them with multi-coloured hair and one of the women wearing an eyepatch wasn't an everyday sight.

"You guys all ready to go then?" Buffy asked after both Pat and she had put on their coats and had hidden the weapons beneath them; the others nodded in reply, then the demon remembered that she had nearly forgotten something important and hurried into the kitchen, returning with a small leather pouch in hand moments later.

"The ingredients for the healing spell", she explained at the curious look Buffy was giving her; nodding, the Slayer smiled, and once the taller woman had put the pouch into her pocket, they all left the apartment together, taking the map with them to easier find the location of their foes, all of them hoping that the visit there would bring an end to the current situation.


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks to the fact that Jim and Sue had arrived at the apartment building with a car, it didn't take the group long to arrive at the office building; Buffy, Willow and Pat were especially glad about that, since they had been forced to cram themselves into the not too roomy back seat, the demon grimacing and stretching once she'd gotten out of the car.

"Feeling your age?" Buffy teased immediately, giggling when Pat glared at her in reply; Jim smirked as well, only to gulp when the glare moved on to him and the demon dryly reminded him of the fact that he was younger than her, so he had no reason to grin.

"Just wait until you reach my age", she then added, tugging at the front flaps of her coat to make sure the sword remained hidden, "then you can grin like that."

"Touchy subject, huh", the earth demon grinned as an answer, merely receiving a snort in reply while Willow let out a little giggle; she was the only one who didn't get glared at for her troubles, the demon just giving her a slightly sour look, this little detail not unnoticed by Jim, who grinned again.

"Alright", Buffy brought the attention back to the task at hand, looking up at the office building, "obviously, this building is neither abandoned, nor old, so we'll have to assume there are innocent people in there. Let's go and see if we can find out which floor our friends are using."

With those words, she set off, making her way to the building's entrance, the rest following; upon entering, they found themselves in a rather elegant looking lobby, the woman behind the reception desk looking up and raising an eyebrow at the peculiar group which just had marched into the building.

"Can I help you?" she politely asked, and after exchanging short looks with the others, Willow muttered "Leave that to me", then made her way over to the desk and stopped in front of it, smiling sweetly at the woman behind it.

"This is a bit embarrassing", she stated, helping the act along by letting her smile falter a bit, "but, well, my boyfriend just started working here recently, and we wanted to surprise him, it's his birthday. I forgot the name of the company though, I just know they moved into this building a few days ago…"

"What's his name?" the receptionist demanded to know while behind the redhead, Pat was struggling to keep a straight face after hearing the boyfriend story; to Willow's dismay, she realized that she had no idea which name to use, and that making one up on the spot would probably not work out. She had a moment to ask herself if the only other idea she could come up with would be the right thing to do; then, she told herself that it was for the greater good and focused, her eyes briefly flashing up in a much brighter green as she caught the woman's gaze.

Taking in a deep breath, since she only had read about this spell, but never had actually tried it on anyone, she gave her best to sound calm, but still stern when she spoke up again, satisfied to see that the woman had gone slightly slack-jawed and a vacant expression had entered her eyes.

"It would be really helpful if you could tell me which floor was rented out a few days ago", she stated, the rest of the group watching with interest, "it's for a very important cause."

"Sure", the woman replied, sounding as dazed as she was looking, "the fourth floor… Just got rented a week ago…"

"Thank you", Willow politely replied, "and, oh, you won't remember any of this once we're out of sight, alright?"

"Sure", the woman agreed, and Willow smiled at her once more before she turned and gave her friends the thumbs up.

"What did you do to her?" Pat wanted to know, sounding just interested and not accusing or anything though; giggling, the redhead shrugged while she led the group to the elevators, a hint of mischief in her eyes and voice when she replied. "I used a spell on her I read about a while ago. Let's say it makes people very… eager to give you answers."

"Neat", the taller woman complimented her, making her smile, "just don't ever use that on me when you wanna do something dangerous, you hear?"

"I would never", Willow protested, then the elevator arrived and the doors opened, making them all step inside. "The fourth floor, she told me", the redhead added, pushing the button for said floor; clearly feeling a bit agitated about the possibility that all too soon, there'd be fighting, Buffy moved one hand beneath her coat to clutch the handle of her sword, frowning when the elevator doors opened again a short time later and the group found themselves standing in some sort of tiny anteroom, a glass door separating them from the hallway that presumably lead to the office areas.

"Let me go first", Pat murmured, keeping her voice low, "I know all about being sneaky."

Nodding, Buffy still kept her hand on the handle of her sword as she watched how the demon moved up to the glass door, spying left and right before she opened it and stepped through; it took her just a few steps to vanish from the sight of the group, and Willow had to stop herself from fidgeting with the hem of her shirt as she waited for the demon to come back – or for the sounds of fighting to come up, something she pretty much expected.

To her surprise, everything stayed quiet though, and after a few minutes had ticked by, Pat came back, looking annoyed, but nodding when Buffy asked her if she'd seen anything interesting.

"Two of the guys who attacked me at the Bronze", she let the Slayer know, "and a bunch of others, total of nine. They're just sitting around in one of those open plan office thingies that are so modern now, some of them are talking, some are fooling around with laptops. It's at the end of that hallway, but we have to be careful, another glass door, I was lucky they didn't spot me."

"Let's move and kick some ass then", Buffy decided in reply, "but remember, at least one of them needs to stay alive so we can question him. I'd say that Pat and me go in first, you two guys follow, and you, Willow, stay in the back, do magic if necessary, but only if you really have to, we might need some spells to convince them of telling us anything. Alright?"

Once they all had nodded, Buffy pulled out her sword, prompting Pat to do the same; side by side, they stepped through the glass door, then quietly moved down the hallway, Jim and Sue behind them, giving them enough room though for fighting, and Willow forming the rear, just as the Slayer had said.

Just when they were halfway down the hallway, a door to their left opened and a man stepped outside of what was clearly a bathroom; his eyes went wide, but before he had the chance to make a sound, Buffy had punched him hard enough to knock the air out of him, then grabbed his collar and, after exchanging one look with Pat, started dragging him toward the glass doors leading to the open plan office. He realized what they were about to do when the demon grabbed his legs and they hoisted him up, but still found himself unable to scream or even just to talk; and seconds later, he was flying, crashing through the glass and ending up on the carpet behind it, moaning and groaning while the other people in the room jumped up from their seats in shock.

"It's them!" one of them shouted after a moment, "shit!"

"Yup, it's us", Buffy agreed, and then she was upon them, her sword slashing left and right, not caring whom she hit, as long as she wounded them and made fighting back harder, if not even impossible, for their foes. Next to her, Pat made sure to keep a safe distance to the Slayer's blade as she used her own to deal out damage as well; as always, Buffy made sure to remain close to her left, keeping anyone from sneaking up to her and taking advantage of her blind side.

Still, they both couldn't stop some of the men and women to move around them and end up behind them; and even though Jim and Sue did their part to keep them from attacking, they couldn't stop them all, one of them grabbing the nearest chair and smashing it on Buffy's back, with enough force to knock the blonde down on all fours. Snarling, the man moved closer to the Slayer, reaching out to grab her; blindly, Buffy swung her sword at him, unable to keep the smirk off her face when she felt the blade connect and the man let out a shout, some of her happiness about the successful hit fading though when she noticed that she merely had cut his leg.

Not letting this little setback stop her, she quickly swiped one leg around and kicked his legs out from underneath him, making him fall; while she came to her feet again, she had a second to notice that another of the men had managed to grab Pat from behind, one of the few women of the group taking the chance given by the demon's momentarily distracted state to land a punch, but before Buffy could move to help, the black haired woman had let out an audible growl and threw herself backwards, against the man holding her, bringing both her feet up at the same time and kicking the woman who'd hit her right in the chest, sending her back a few steps, gasping, while both she and the man still trying to hold her went down.

Still gasping, the woman moved to pick up the sword Pat had involuntarily dropped when the guy had grabbed her; before she could take hold of the weapon though, the carpet suddenly came to unexpected life, thick strings of it moving upwards and wrapping around her ankles, the sudden restriction of her movement making her stumble and nearly causing her to fall again.

Smirking, Willow took a moment to savour the sight of the woman struggling against the bonds her spell had put her in, then focused on the fight again, watching how her partner took a firm hold of the man who'd grabbed her and, with one mighty shove, sent him stumbling headfirst into one of the pillars that were placed left and right to the middle aisle of the office, a low grunt coming from him before he slumped down.

For a moment, the demon looked as if she wanted to move for her weapon again, but before she could do so, two more men came at her, both of them yelling, as if to prep themselves for the fight; she met the first one with a punch to the jaw, saw from the corner of her eye how the other one lashed out, the metallic glint of a knife or dagger in his hand – and then Jim was there, a large rock quickly forming in his hand even while he brought his arm around, the stone connecting with the side of the man's head and sending him to the ground.

"Thanks, mate", Pat had time to smirk at him, then two more men and yet another woman came at them; and with an unspoken understanding of each other as if they hadn't spent more than forty years apart, the two moved to stand back to back, bringing up their fists, the taller woman's bursting into flames while more rocks formed in the earth demon's hands. They moved a few steps apart to avoid endangering each other, then the attackers had reached them, the black haired woman using the momentum one of them had gained when he had rushed at her by bending down the moment he was close enough so he couldn't stop himself anymore, briefly grabbing his legs as she hoisted him over her shoulder and then let him drop to the ground; by the time she had straightened up again though, the second man was too close to let her react to his attack, and she had to take his fist full in the face, with enough force that her head got thrown back into her neck.

Before she could recover from the hit, both the man and the woman had grabbed her; close to the sad remains of the glass door, she heard Willow cry out as they launched her forwards, then she managed to turn her head aside in the last second to avoid smacking into the first aid kit mounted to the wall face first, stars still exploding in front of her eye when she got slammed into it. Grunting, Pat let herself drop down to her knees as the man tried to land another punch, his fist hitting the already dented first aid kit instead and denting it even further; he let out a yelp, then a low gasp followed as the demon crashed into him, moving past him as something red at one of the pillars had caught her eye, a smirk forming on her face when she saw that it was what she had thought it had been.

Behind her, she heard a shriek as the woman rushed to attack her once more; it took her a mere second to get the fire extinguisher out of the frame that held it on the pillar, and in one fluid movement, she turned and swung it around, whacking the attacking woman right in the stomach and sending her back again, where she crashed into the guy on the ground, ending his struggles to get back up as they both went down.

"This is interesting", Sue commented, standing next to Willow, clearly not interested in taking part in the fight, "she still fights like she did back then, using everything she can get her hands on."

"Buffy's the same", Willow replied, not taking her gaze away from the brawl for a second, watching how Jim and Buffy each took out another one of their opponents, "that can get quite interesting in certain environments. One time, at the Bronze, that's a club here, they threw the billiard balls at a vampire."

For a moment, all of this felt quite absurd to her, standing here and chatting about the preferred fighting methods of her girlfriend and her best friend with yet another demon; then, she saw how the man Jim had knocked down earlier struggled to his feet again, brandishing the knife he had been clutching at his initial attack and sneaking towards Pat, the demon distracted by battling yet another guy, still using the fire extinguisher as a weapon.

"Pat, behind you!" the witch cried out, alarmed, not caring if this made the other men and women still on their feet notice her or not; to her relief, the demon had heard her, as she spun around, bringing the fire extinguisher up just in time to make the knife slam into the red metal instead of her chest or stomach. Seconds later, the man started screaming as the extinguisher's content shot out in a thick white cloud and right into his face; quickly, the stuff spread, making it hard for the combatants to see, and Sue let out a sigh, shaking her head to herself while she moved a step forward and took in a deep breath, Willow watching with amazement how she blew a shockingly strong gust of wind at the cloud moments later, making it dissolve into nothingness.

"That's quite amazing", she let the air demon know while the fighting resumed, now that they all could see again; before Sue could answer though, a mighty crash sounded through the office, making them both flinch, both of them relieved though when they saw that it had been caused by Buffy throwing one of her opponents on a table hard enough to make it break beneath his weight and the force of the impact.

By now, only three of their enemies remained standing, one of them the woman Willow still kept bound to the spot with the spell; the two who still were capable of moving and thus fighting were yet another woman, small and so chubby that her height and width were almost the same, and a tall, thin man, exchanging uneasy looks as Buffy, Pat and Jim all faced them.

"So", Buffy smirked, "you two still up to fighting? Or would you rather leave?"

"Their boss wouldn't like that, I imagine", Jim threw in before any of the two could say anything, "but maybe, if you guys run far away fast enough, you can get away from him before he notices what you've done."

"We won't run away like cowards", the man spat as an answer to that, making Buffy raise an eyebrow, her voice dripping with sarcasm when she replied. "Oh, but you have no problem to send four men to beat up one woman, right? 'cause that's so brave."

"It's none of your business how we handle the wishes of our clients", the woman smugly replied, only to have the guy next to her elbow her in the ribs, as a clear signal that she had said too much; Buffy smiled slightly, then moved with lightning speed, stepping forward and punching the guy straight in the face, making him cry out as he stumbled backwards.

With a cry of her own, the woman lashed out to return the favour; seconds later, her arm was grabbed, and she had a moment to look into Pat's grinning face – before the demon's free hand grabbed her at the throat and she was picked up from the ground, dangling in the grip helplessly for a few seconds, her eyes widening when she realized what the taller woman was about to do.

The realization did nothing to help her avoid it though, her hands flailing helplessly at the demon's arm before the grip on her throat tightened and she was flung away, straight through one of the windows, the sound of the glass breaking followed by the crash her body made as it hit one of the vehicles parked in front of the building moments later.

"Well", Buffy stated conversationally as she landed a kick against the guy's head, effectively knocking him out and making the woman still held by the spell the only one who remained conscious, "that surely was fun, it's been a while since I've been in such a mass brawl. And we even managed to keep one of them awake for questioning."

With those words, she turned to look at the woman, smiling pleasantly at her; gulping, she reacted by tugging at the carpet again, to no avail though, as Willow pointed out to her, in the same pleasant tone of voice.

"Give it up", she smiled, now moving closer to the fighters, noticing with dismay that all three of them were bleeding and that bruises were forming, but at least none of them seemed seriously hurt, "that spell can't be broken with physical force."

"I won't tell you anything", the woman spat in reply, "you might as well kill me now!"

"We won't kill you if you tell us what we want to know", Buffy pointed out to her, "and that's not much. Just tell us who hired you guys to come after my friend here, and we'll leave."

"No", the woman stubbornly gave back, crossing her arms over her chest; shaking her head, Buffy turned away from her and to Willow, making their captive gulp when she asked if the spell she had used on the receptionist would work in this case, as well.

"Not sure", the redhead gave back, "the book where I read it said it works on humans, no word about demons. I can try though."

"It's worth a try", the Slayer agreed, making Willow nod before she looked at the woman, frowning when she gave her best to avoid her gaze; she took a step closer, and suddenly, everything seemed to happen at once, the woman jerking up her arm, a thin, long and sharp blade sliding out of her sleeve while Jim let out a short "Hey!" and stomped on the ground once, a gasp escaping the witch when a pillar of thick earth appeared out of nowhere and caught the blade before it could be rammed into her body.

"Whew", the earth demon muttered, "that was close, and I hate doing that when no actual earth is around."

"Thanks", Willow gave back, looking at him in astonishment while the woman let out a dismayed noise as she tried to get the blade out of the pillar, with no success though; and then, Pat let out a low growl and stepped up to her, grabbing her other arm and twisting it up behind her back, making her cry out.

"You try to stab my girlfriend, time for pleasantries is over", she snarled, ignoring it when the woman let out a pain-filled whimper, "either you tell us now what we want to know, or I'll start burning you until you talk anyway. It's up to you."

"Please!" the woman cried out in reply, now not sounding defiant anymore, but scared, "even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't! We never know the client, only the boss does!"

"Surely you can tell us then where your boss is, right?" Buffy sweetly gave back, not letting it show if the demon's threat about torturing the woman disturbed her or not; she grit her teeth in reply, then cried out again when Pat jerked her arm upwards, until the bone cracked suspiciously.

"Stop!" she yelped, twisting her head in a vain attempt to look at the taller woman, "or you'll break my arm!"

"And you think I care?" the demon snarled, unimpressed by the pain she heard in the woman's voice, "I'll break much more than that if you don't answer her question."

For a few more moments, the woman struggled with herself, her face working as she tried to figure out how serious Pat was; then, she squeezed her eyes shut, mumbling something which sounded an apology before she spoke on. "He's not here, he stayed at the headquarters, in L.A., he never comes with us when we go for a job…"

"More details, please", Buffy demanded, glaring at her, "or I'll tell my fiery friend here to just let loose. You won't like that."

Momentarily, the woman looked as if she'd refuse to talk again; then, she felt Pat's grip on her arm tighten, and within the blink of an eye, she started talking again, so fast that she nearly started stuttering, giving them the demon's name and the address he was living at.

"Thank you", the Slayer smiled, then nodded at Pat; and seconds later, the demon's fist came down, the woman's eyes rolling back into her head before she went down, knocked just as unconscious as the rest of her companions.


	12. Chapter 12

"I'll call Angel and ask him to sort that out for us", Buffy suggested as they left the office building together, the receptionist looking after them in surprise, but not calling out to them or trying to stop them, "then we don't need to go to L.A., if that's alright for you guys."

"Sure", Willow agreed at once, before Pat had the chance to say something and maybe protest, "as long as this gets them off our backs."

"I'd prefer it to handle it on my own", the demon grumbled in reply, not really surprising anyone, "but judging from the look on my girl's face, she won't like that, so fine, call that guy and ask him to kick that demon's ass or something."

"Aww", Jim sighed out as an answer, "so the action's over then? Poor Jane, she won't like that, she was looking forward to fighting when she said she'd come here, too."

"If they give it up now", Pat shrugged, "that we know who they are and who their boss is might not stop them until he calls them off."

"Angel will take care of that immediately if I ask him to", Buffy gave back, already getting out her cell phone, "just give me five minutes."

Nodding, the taller woman dug out her cigarettes in reply and lit one of them up while Buffy called the number Angel had given her for his office; to her surprise, it was Harmony who took the call, but instead of pondering this further, she shrugged it off and asked if Angel was available, not surprised when Harmony told her that he was asleep.

"I can take your message though if you like", she offered, "I work here now for him, you know!"

"Yeah, I figured that out when you answered his office phone", Buffy gave back, wondering how Harmony could handle office work, seeing how dense she had been at school, "well, tell him that's urgent once he wakes up, we need a demon gang boss taken care off. He's at Nelson Street, number twenty-two, his name's Nivarius, if that chick told the truth."

"I'll tell him", Harmony promised, "and how are you doing over there, Buffy? Is everything going well?"

"Yes", the Slayer replied, feeling tempted to ask how Harmony had ended up working for Angel, then shrugging it off, telling herself that right now, all she wanted was to go home and rest, and not chat with her former classmate, "and I'd love to talk longer, but we just all got out of a fight and need to get some rest, so…"

"Oh, of course", Harmony gave back at once, "we'll talk another time then! Take care Buffy!"

"Um, yeah, you too", the blonde smiled, then said goodbye and ended the call, looking up at her friends again afterwards, her smile widening slightly as she told them that Harmony had taken the message and would forward it to Angel as fast as possible.

"Harmony?" Willow echoed, raising an eyebrow, "what is she doing there?"

"She works there, apparently", Buffy let her know, giggling at the flabbergasted look the redhead gave her in reply while the other three just exchanged confused looks, not having an idea who the two were talking about, "yeah, I know, I thought it's weird, too."

"Weird doesn't even begin to describe it", Willow mumbled, then noticed the look on her partner's face and smiled, letting her know that she'd tell her later and making her nod.

"Well", Jim was the next one to speak up, "I guess we are done here then?" He smiled when Buffy nodded her agreement, then offered to drive them all to their homes; once again, they all crammed themselves into the car, Willow looking at the office building once more as Jim stepped on the gas pedal and drove off, unable to shake off the feeling that, even though they had gotten the information they'd needed to stop this, the danger was far from over yet.

* * *

"I'm all hyped up now after that fight", Pat let her partner know once they were back in their apartment and Jim had driven off again to take Buffy home, "that was fun, like Buffy said, it's been a while since we had such a brawl!"

"Anyone else would be happy if they'd never in their life end up in such a brawl", Willow giggled while she took off her shoes and jacket, then moved into the living room, the demon following her, "but I have to say, even though I didn't participate much, it was fun to watch, I like watching you fight. You're so… fierce."

"I'm glad they all focused on Buffy, Jim and me and didn't pay much attention on you, though", the taller woman admitted in reply after smiling at her partner's words for a moment, "it might have been hard to get to you in time, with so many guys there, ready to get in the way. And I just remembered I didn't thank you yet for warning me about that dude with the knife…"

"Oh please", the redhead shrugged her words off, clearly not realizing what Pat was aiming for, "you don't have to thank me for something like that, what kind of girlfriend would I be if I didn't warn you when someone wants to stab you from behind?"

"A bad one", the black haired woman chuckled, "but I have a special way of thanking you in mind, so you should let me…"

"Oh", the witch finally caught up in reply, "well, in that case…" She smirked, then grabbed her girlfriend by the front of her shirt and pulled her closer; somehow, they managed to make it to the couch without breaking the heated kiss that had started seconds afterwards, but a few minutes later, they were forced to pull apart again as the doorbell rang, a low groan escaping the demon at the interruption.

"Let's pretend we're not at home", Willow suggested breathlessly, "maybe they'll leave again then…"

"The wind tells me you're there", Sue's voice drifted through the closed apartment door, as if she had heard the redhead, "please open and let us in!"

"Dammit", Pat grumbled, her face darkening when further when Jim's voice came up as well, calling out her name and Willow's, "they're not going to leave, I know them. Talk about bad timing."

"The worst timing", the witch agreed glumly, sitting up on the couch; she quickly buttoned her blouse up again, then straightened her clothes and ran both hands through her hair while her partner went to open the door, the smile on Jim's face dying the moment he saw the expression on Pat's.

"We interrupted something, right?" he then wanted to know, throwing a pointed look at the demon's tousled her and at the spot where her shirt had been pulled out of her pants; far from being embarrassed, the taller woman just nodded, not sounding all too perturbed either when she replied. "Yes you did, so this better be important. What's up?"

"Jane finally arrived", Jim beamed at her in reply, "she just called ten minutes ago when she drove into town, and she's on her way here now!"

"Great", the demon muttered, fighting down the urge to roll her good eye – after all, she had been hoping that she'd be able to get rid of the two quickly so Willow and she could go on where they had been interrupted, but with the fourth member of their former group arriving any minute now, this hope had been dashed to pieces.

"Come in then", she thus sighed, stepping aside to let them enter just when Willow finally came into the anteroom to see what was taking her partner so long; she smiled at Jim and Sue as she watched them enter, then, when she could be sure none of the two was paying attention, gave her partner a questioning look, receiving a helpless shrug in reply.

"We're here because Jane finally made it town", Jim let the redhead know the moment he had finished taking off his shoes and jacket, beaming at her, "she'll be here any minute now, you'll like her! And it'll be the four of us again, just like in old times!"

"For a while, at least", Pat shrugged, "or are you planning to stay here in Sunnydale?"

"No", Sue was the one to answer that, "but we'll enjoy being together again for a bit longer, the wind told me we shouldn't leave yet."

To Willow's surprise, Pat and Jim exchanged a somewhat worried glance at hearing that; none of them said anything about it though, the taller woman merely asking their guests to take a seat in the living room so they'd be comfortable until Jane would arrive, stopping Willow though when she made a move to follow them there.

"We better be careful", the demon mumbled to her, keeping her voice low so the two others in the living room wouldn't hear, "even though none of us knows about this whole the-wind-telling-her thing, whenever she said that it told her we shouldn't leave somewhere yet or shouldn't do something, it usually saved our asses. If whatever it is told her that they shouldn't leave yet, maybe even sending that Angel guy after that demon wasn't enough."

"You might still be in danger, then?" Willow clarified, frowning, not liking the thought at all, her frown deepening when the demon nodded after a moment, a small sigh coming from her afterwards.

"I've never heard of this Nivarius guy", she then let her partner know, "but that doesn't mean anything, I've been out of the loop for a while now and even though I had a shitload of good contacts when I was still… active, I was far from knowing all of the demon gang bosses out there. I know that there are quite many though who don't give up so fast, so he might still be out to finish the job."

"Well, if Angel takes care of him, he won't", the redhead gave back after thinking about this for a moment, "he's quite good at what he does, and if he sorts that demon out, he'll do a thorough job of it."

"Let's hope so", Pat sighed after thinking about this for a moment, "I don't want to worry about getting attacked every time I leave the house or stand at a window."

"I don't like that, either", Willow agreed at once, "but now, let's go and join Jim and Sue, or they'll think we're finishing what we started before they came out here."

Chuckling, the demon nodded and let the redhead lead the way; in the living room, the found Sue sitting on the couch and once again playing with a tiny whirlwind she had conjured on her palm while Jim stood at the bookshelf, looking at its content.

"Interesting stuff you got there", he let the two know as he turned around to face them, gesturing at said shelf, "I'd ask to borrow a few of those books if I didn't think we'd leave too soon for me to finish them in time."

"Well, in case you ever come back for a longer stay, you're free to borrow them, then", Willow smiled, making him grin at her before he nodded; they beamed at each other for a moment longer, then the redhead asked if they wanted anything to drink, not surprised when both Jim and Sue nodded their agreement.

While she went to get the drinks, the doorbell rang again, and Jim excitedly announced that this had to be Jane; she heard how Pat told him to remain seated, then her partner's footsteps moved from the living room to the apartment door, the sound of said door opening followed by a happy cry of the demon's name. Curious to see this Jane the others had been talking about so much, Willow hurriedly removed several cans of soda from the fridge, then returned to the living room, just in time to see Pat and their new guest enter, her eyes briefly going wide when she spotted the ice demon.

With Jane standing next to Pat, it was easy to see how tall she was, almost as tall as the black haired woman; her built was slender, but not as wiry as Pat's, her hair long and flowing down her back, such a light blonde that it was almost white, her ice-blue eyes and pale skin completing the picture. For a moment, she felt jealous at the thought of her partner living with this woman for years, then told herself not to be silly and pushing those thoughts and feelings aside, reminding herself of the fact that surely, Pat would have told her if she'd had some sort of fling with this woman.

"Oh you must be Willow!" Jane now cried out, finally noticing the redhead and turning to give her a proper look; their eyes met, and for an unknown reason, Willow felt a shiver run down her spine, as if someone had touched her with an icicle.

"I've heard so much about you", the blonde gushed on as she moved away from Pat and closer to the witch, "none of us could believe it when those tales about Pat being with you now reached us…"

"Yes, Jim and Sue told me about that", the redhead gave back, still holding Jane's gaze, and again feeling that shiver run down her spine, asking herself if this could be solely blamed on the other woman's element – or if it was something in her eyes, something she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"And you had this big fight without me", the blonde now sighed, looking at the black haired woman reproachfully, "if I had known you'd get into such an all-out brawl, I would have come here sooner, it's been a while since I had a decent fight."

"Well, if you'll stay here for another night at least, maybe we can all go along on patrol", Jim suggested in reply, giving Pat a hopeful look, "that fight got my blood up, I wouldn't mind having another one."

"I don't think Buffy would mind", the taller woman shrugged in reply, "I'll call her and ask if it's okay if we come along tonight, if you want to?"

"Buffy surely would like that", Willow threw in, smiling slightly, "she always complains that patrol takes much longer when she's doing it alone."

"Awesome", Jim smirked at once, his eagerness to get into yet another fight making the redhead smile slightly, reminding her of how Pat always was acting when she'd gone a few days without beating anything up, "it's been a while since I've gone after vampires, I hope I can still hit the heart."

"Buffy can give you a crash course", the taller woman smirked while she dug out her phone and found the Slayer's number in the built-in phone book, then pushed the button that would start the call; grinning, Jim nodded, remained quiet though as the blonde took the call and the demon explained why she was calling her.

"Sure you can all tag along, you know I love it to have company on patrol", Buffy told her at once when she had finished, "but we should make groups then or something, if we walk around in a cluster of six people, the vampires will know at once what is going on and will hide or something."

"They'll know the moment they'll see you or me, but sure, why not", Pat shrugged, the others listening curiously, "we'll meet you at eight then? At which cemetery?"

"The one close to the forest", Buffy decided at once, "I haven't been there for a while. Eight is fine, I hope Angel will have called me until then, he didn't so far."

"Yup, me too", the demon agreed, "and alright, see you at eight then. We'll bring our own weapons."

"I hope so, it'd look really weird if I walked around with weapons for five people", Buffy giggled, then told her to take care until then and said goodbye; Pat did the same, then put the phone back into her pocket and gave her friends a thumbs-up, making Jim smile heartily again.

"I hope you have some big and pointy weapons we can borrow", he then stated, after the demon had given them all the details of what she had settled with Buffy, "cause we didn't bring any."

"I did", Jane quipped before Pat could answer, making the others chuckle; then, the taller woman reassured him that she had more than enough, making him smile widely again, and even causing him to bounce on the spot slightly, his eagerness amusing the rest of the group once more, and even though she still wasn't sure why she had reacted that way to Jane, Willow smiled and laughed with the rest of them, telling herself that surely, there was no need to worry and that everything would be fine in the end.


	13. Chapter 13

Several hours later, the group met up with Buffy at the cemetery, as it had been agreed upon; even though she wasn't too keen on getting into yet another fight, Willow had come along as well, wanting to be there in case her magic might be needed to aid them against the vampires waiting for them out there.

"You've gotta do something", Jane told her while Buffy was discussing with Pat how they should split up, "I wanna see you do some magic. Please?"

"Well, I'm not gonna do it for fun", Willow gave back, not sure what to think about that request, "but if it gets necessary, why not… And if we'll be in the same group, of course."

"You are", Buffy commented, turning to look at her best friend with a slight smile, "we figured that Pat and you would want to go together, so Jane will come with you, and I'll go with Jim and Sue."

"Sounds good to me", Jim agreed, making Sue nod as well; Jane gave an excited smile and agreed, too, Buffy still taking the time to tell Pat which area of the cemetery they should check and that they should be careful before they split up into the groups they had settled on.

"We gotta be quiet", Pat let her partner and the other demon know, "or we won't hear them dig themselves out. Also, Buffy wants us to check one of the crypts, she thinks there's a nest inside."

"How many are that usually?" Jane wanted to know, keeping her voice low as well, frowning when the taller woman shrugged in reply.

"That differs", she then let her know, "sometimes, there are just four or five, but I've also seen nests with ten and more. If there are too many, we'll have to get the others or it'll be too dangerous to get in, unless Willow brought some of her sunlight-in-a-bag…"

When the witch didn't answer, Pat gave her a curious look, then said her name again, smirking slightly when her partner flinched visibly in reply before she glanced at her, sounding a bit embarrassed when she replied. "I beg your pardon? I wasn't really listening…"

"I said that, if the nest is too big, we'll have to get the others, unless you brought along some sunlight-in-a-bag", Pat repeated patiently, even though she couldn't keep the hint of amusement out of her voice, the feeling only growing when Willow blushed slightly, clearly having picked up on it as well.

"Unfortunately, I didn't", she then let the demon know, "but if we all work together, we'll do just fine without it."

"Yup", Pat agreed at once, then fell silent and frowned, raising one hand when it looked as if Jane wanted to say something, silencing her.

"Listen", she muttered after a moment, "over there…" Straining their ears, the two other women gave their best to hear what she had heard; and moments later, Willow did, the way Jane's eyes widened showing her that she had heard it as well, the unmistakable sounds which came up when someone was digging their way out of their own grave.

"Let me handle that one", Jane demanded the moment she had identified the noise, "I want to know if I still got it."

"Sure, but we'll stay close, just in case", Pat gave back after thinking about this for a second; smiling happily, the other demon nodded, then started moving, the witch and the taller woman following her, making sure to keep a safe distance between her and the vampire they could see up ahead though.

Said vampire finally had managed to dig herself out of the grave, looking around slightly confused, clearly not having an idea what had happened to her; then, her gaze fell on Jane, and within seconds, her face had changed to what the gang always referred to as "Game Face", a snarl coming from her as she bared her teeth at the other woman.

"Is she any good?" Willow whispered to her girlfriend while Jane smiled at the vampire and took a step closer to her, flexing her fingers; without taking her gaze away from the other demon, Pat shrugged, keeping her voice low as well when she replied. "She was when we were all hanging out together, but I have no idea if she still is… Better get ready to help, just in case."

Nodding, Willow moved a bit closer to her, keeping her eyes focused on the blonde demon, unable to shrug off the feeling that something was a bit off about her. The same feeling had been the reason for her brief lapse of attention a few minutes earlier, when she hadn't even noticed that Pat had been talking to her; and even though she tried to focus on what Jane was doing, the blonde woman by now trading blows with the vampire, she found herself unable to stop from wondering about her again, once more asking herself why she had this strange feeling about the demon and if there was a reason for it.

"She's doing quite well", Pat now commented next to her, snapping her out of her thoughts; she had to admit that her partner was right, finally managing to focus on Jane and the fight she was having with the vampire. Unlike Pat, Jane wasn't using brute force and speed to defeat her foe; she was moving so gracefully that she looked more as if she was dancing than fighting, easily dodging the clumsy blows of the vampire and landing hits and kicks in return, making the vampire grunt and growl at each impact.

"I wonder if she'll use her powers, too", Willow muttered after watching in silence for a few minutes, "I'd like to see what she can do."

"She uses icicles, mostly", Pat let her know as an answer, "well, at least she did when we were still hanging out. I doubt that changed though, it's always been quite useful."

As if her words had been some sort of cue, Jane suddenly moved backwards with a quite daring back handspring; she landed safely only her feet, and seconds later, the cold that came up around her made her breath steam in front of her face while simultaneously, a long and surprisingly sharp icicle formed in her right hand. With a somewhat nasty smirk forming on her face, she brought her arm up; the vampire just had a second to notice what was going on, then the icicle had dug itself deep into her chest, and she let out a shriek before she crumbled into dust.

"Well done", Pat complimented while Jane dropped the icicle so it'd melt on the ground and wiped the thin layer of snow which had formed on her palm off by rubbing her hand over her jacket, "obviously, you didn't lose any skills since we fought together the last time."

"Of course not", the ice demon replied, giving the taller woman a smile, "that'd be a shame. One never knows when such skills are needed…" Her smile widened slightly, and her voice took on a slightly seductive tone Willow didn't like one bit as she went on, her gaze never leaving the taller demon. "Now that you saw me fight, I'd like you to return the favour… I know it was always fun to watch you beat the shit out of someone."

"Sure, why not", Pat shrugged, either not hearing the seductive undertone or deciding to ignore it, "let's just find another vampire and I'll show you. I can tell you already though, my style didn't really change."

"I don't mind", Jane gave back at once, ignoring the slightly annoyed look Willow gave her, "let's go and find you a vampire then, shall we?"

Again, Pat just shrugged in reply, then nodded; Jane gave her another smile, then started walking, the couple following her, Willow giving her best to hold back any snide remarks about her tone of voice, not sure if she'd be able to hear her or not.

"Ignore how she talked", Pat whispered to her a second later, surprising her and making her wonder if her dismay about the other demon's tone had been so obvious, "she's been doing that all the time, I don't even take it seriously anymore."

"Good to know", Willow muttered, then gave her partner a slight smile, to show that nothing was amiss; Pat smiled back at her, then Jane called out as she had spotted yet another vampire and urged her to go and fight it, the taller woman just nodding before she moved to do just that, Willow remaining where she was, still unable to shake off the feeling that something wasn't just quite right about Jane and her behaviour, her doubts nagging at the back of her mind, telling her again and again that she was missing something crucial, the witch finding herself unable to put her finger on it though, no matter how hard she tried.


	14. Chapter 14

As always when she was battling a fledgling vampire, Pat didn't give her opponent much time to land hits or to even merely fight back; a few powerful blows brought enough distance between him and her so that she could grab the stake she had tucked into her belt and pull it out, and when he charged at her again, yelling and growling, she staked him easily, smirking when he crumbled into dust.

"Poor lad", Jane commented as she moved closer, "he never had a chance. And you still fight as you did back then, too, I see. Strength and speed."

"Well, why not use what I have", Pat smirked in reply, "but you should know that by now, I also learned how to dodge and block, well, most of the time."

"I should hope so", Jane giggled, looking at the sad remains of the vampire a bit longer before she straightened up and gestured towards the north end of the cemetery, where the crypts were located. "Shall we go and see if we find this nest, then?" she suggested, making both Pat and Willow nod; the demon still took the time to put her stake back into her belt, then they started walking again, the redhead moving closer to her partner after a few steps and grasping her hand, making her smile down on her.

"Let's hope we'll be able to handle that nest on our own", she then stated, finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up, clearly deciding that there was enough time for a smoke break, "who knows where the others are, it might take them ages to get here."

"That, and if we call Buffy on her phone, who knows if she'll hear when she's in the middle of the fight the moment we call", Willow pointed out a slight flaw in the agreement they had made before they all had split up; realizing that this was a good point, Pat grimaced and nodded, then suddenly smirked, the redhead almost automatically smiling back, momentarily surprised about how that certain smirk still made her heart jump, even after all those years.

"Maybe we won't need to call them, anyway", the demon now stated, a mischief glint in her good eye that showed her next words weren't fully serious, "maybe, Sue will hear something from the wind again and they'll come running."

"This wind thing is so weird", Willow giggled, the sound of her laughter making Jane briefly turn her head to look at them, the ice demon not inquiring about the reason for her giggling though, "and I'd really like to know if that's actually true or if she's just an oddball."

"A mix of both, probably", the taller woman chuckled in reply, making her partner giggle once more; then, Jane gained their attention by calling out their names, gesturing to the several crypts lined up ahead of them.

"There we are", she stated the obvious, "with which one should we start?"

"I guess we can ignore those tiny ones over there", Pat gave back, "not big enough for a proper nest, they'd end up eating each other. Maybe with the big one in the middle."

"Sounds reasonable", Jane agreed after a moment, while Willow nodded at once, "so who goes in first? Can I?"

"Yeah, why not", the demon shrugged, "but be careful and try not to make any noise in case they are in there and are slumbering."

"Of course, what do you think I am, a klutz?" the blonde demanded, giving the taller woman a mock glare; Pat just smirked and shrugged, making Willow wonder if in fact the other woman could be a klutz at times, then she made a mental note to herself to ask about this later and focused on Jane again, watching how she approached the crypt and carefully pulled the door open, managing to do so without making any noise; she stepped inside, but already why she did so, both the witch and the demon could hear the sounds of vampires feasting.

"Let's hope we're not too late", the redhead whispered while Jane stepped back outside and looked at them, her voice sincere when she replied, keeping her voice low as well. "There's six of them, and a girl, they're drinking from her, quite messy. So what do we do? Go in now or call for the others?"

"There's no time to call for them and wait for them to arrive", Pat decided in reply, "if that girl is still alive, we need to get her out fast. Do you know if she is?"

"I think so", Jane replied at once, to the obvious relief of Willow, "I think she was still breathing, but you're right, we gotta be quick."

"You two go inside now then", the redhead suggested, "and I'll call Buffy and ask them to come, then I'll join you and try to get out the girl, so just in case they turn out to be too many, they can barge in like the cavalry and help."

"Good plan", the demon agreed with a smirk, "let's go then, Jane, and kick some ass. Willow, as you said, try to get out the girl, but only if they are all busy with Jane and me and won't notice you, alright? I don't want them to get a taste of you."

"Same here", the witch gave back, "and please be careful, you've been injured often enough the last two days."

"I'll take care", Pat reassured her at once, smiling slightly; then, Jane asked if they finally could go inside now, making her nod; she still took the time to throw the cigarette on the ground and putting it out by stepping in on it, then stole a quick kiss from her partner before she moved forward, Jane following suit a moment later, the two vanishing in the crypt, the redhead briefly smiling to herself when she heard Pat snarl "Dinner time's over" at the bunch of vampires.

While the sounds of fighting came up inside the crypt, the redhead quickly got out her cell phone and called Buffy; to her surprise and relief, the Slayer took the call after the first ring, sounding slightly concerned when she asked if everything was okay and why she was calling.

"We found that vampire's nest you were talking about", Willow quickly explained, "Pat and Jane are inside now, fighting them, and I'll have to try and get their victim out once we ended this call, so we better make this quick. Can you come over here, just in case we'll need help? It's at the north end of the cemetery, the big crypt in the middle."

"We'll be there as fast as possible", Buffy promised, "now get in there and try to get that poor girl out, but be careful, okay?"

"I will", Willow reassured her, then ended the call without another word; she quickly put the phone back into her pocket, then entered the crypt; for a moment, all she could see was chaos, one vampire struggling to come to his feet at the bottom of the stairs which led from the entrance down to the grave area, four more of them engaged in hand-to-hand combat with both Pat and Jane, the taller demon snarling audibly as she landed punches left and right, her good eye glowing brightly red, making it quite easily for Willow to spot her in the rather dark crypt.

A few feet away from her, Jane was doing her own part of the fighting, again with that impressive elegance and grace the witch had seen from her earlier; she easily sidestepped, ducked and blocked all kicks and punches the vampires were throwing at her, landing powerful blows in return for each one.

"Seems like they don't need any help from the others", Willow muttered to herself while she moved down the stairs; there, the vampire had managed to get up by now, but he didn't even glance at her, immediately launching himself into the middle of the brawl instead, making her smirk for a moment before she hurried over to where the girl laid on the ground, bleeding from numerous bite wounds at her neck, arms and legs.

To her relief though, the girl clearly was still alive, something which showed through the tiny whimper she let out when the redhead knelt down next to her, weakly shaking her head, her eyelids fluttering as she struggled to open her eyes.

"Hush, it's okay, I'll get you out", Willow whispered, not wanting to gain the attention of the fighting vampires, "you'll be okay, I promise, just try to—"

The snarl coming from behind her was the only indicator for the danger she was in, and it startled her so much that she reacted too late; while she still tried to turn, the vampire's arms wrapped around her, pinning hers to her side, and he jerked her upwards and against his body, a pained cry escaping her when his fangs dug into her neck.

She felt him take two big, greedy gulps, unimpressed by her struggles; and then, he suddenly grunted, only to vanish into dust a second later as Pat rammed her sake into his back, with enough force to make it go all the way through to his heart.

"Thank you", the witch brought out, still stunned at how quickly and easily that vampire had snuck up on her and had overpowered her, "I can't believe I let that happen…"

"Are you okay?" Pat demanded to know in reply, eying the wounds the vampire's fangs had caused and the blood that still was seeping from them with concern; to her relief, Willow nodded at once, then gave her a brave smile, not letting it show that it actually still hurt.

"I've been bitten before", she then reminded her of her previous close encounters with vampires, "and you dusted him before he could do much damage."

"His pals have all gone dusty as well, so once we got the girl out, we're pretty much done here", the demon let her know, "she's still alive, right?"

"Yes, she is", Willow confirmed at once, "poor thing, she's scared out of her mind…"

"No surprise there", the taller woman muttered, "let me just pick her up then and let's get outta here…"

"Not yet", Jane's voice came up just as Pat bent down next to the wounded girl, making both Willow and her look at the other demon, the black haired woman frowning slightly when she saw the fresh icicle her long-time friend had made appear in her hand.

"There's something we have to get done here first", the ice demon went on before Pat or Willow had the chance to say something, "but it won't take long."

"And what would that be?" the taller woman demanded to know after a few seconds had ticked by in silence; in response, Jane just gave her a strangely cold smile – before she brought up the icicle and launched herself forward, the sharp weapon in her hand glinting in the weak light as she brought it down in an almost elegant ark, the tip aimed right at the other demon's chest.


	15. Chapter 15

Somehow, despite how shocked she was about this, Pat managed to react to the attack just in time to avoid it, throwing herself sideways and coming to her feet seconds after hitting the ground, automatically clenching her fists as she stared at the other demon.

"What the Hell are you doing?" she demanded to know, while next to her, all Willow could do was stand and stare, unable to believe that Jane really just had done that; still smirking, the ice demon twirled the icicle in her hand, her voice now cold and uncaring as she replied. "I'm doing what should have been done days ago, but unfortunately, my people are obviously amateurs, so I decided to finish that job myself."

"You sent those assassins?" Willow cried out, her eyes going wide while now, it was the demon's turn to stare in disbelief. "Why? Why would you do that? You were friends!"

"Yes, we were", Jane agreed amiably, smiling at the redhead, "but then she decided to leave, but I would have forgiven that, you know, I mean, I'd been doing what we were fighting about back then for decades, they all just had no idea. I understood why she was doing it, you know? But all of this, helping the Slayer to kill our kind? That's going too far."

"I knew something was off about you", Willow let her know, not even sure why she was telling her this; Jane just gave her another smile, then her grip on the icicle tightened again and she brought it up once more, her eyes flashing up brightly blue as she focused on the demon once more.

"You have bad timing about this idiocy, you know", Pat let her know, sliding into a fighting stance without even fully noticing, "the others will be here any minute now, and then we'll kick your ass."

"Oh, they'll be held up a bit, I'm afraid", Jane smiled, starting to circle the demon with catlike moves, never taking her eyes off her, "it's so pesky to run into demons on the cemetery, you know…"

"Then I'll just have to kick your ass on my own", the taller woman shrugged; in reply, Jane just smiled again, then finally moved in for the attack, Willow watching with held breath how she landed the first blow, easily ducking the one Pat threw at her in response.

"Too bad I know very well how you fight", the ice demon teased, dancing away from yet another punch and landing one in response, the crunching sound of the taller woman's nose breaking beneath her fist making Willow wince, "just using your strength and speed, that might work against your usual foes, but not against someone like me."

"We'll see about that", the demon growled in reply, ignoring the blood that was practically gushing from her nostrils; Jane let out a surprisingly girlish giggle in reply, then attacked yet again, her fist meeting the taller woman's jaw, the blow sending her a few steps back.

Grimacing in pain, Pat brought up her fists again, deciding to remain in the defence for a while now, until she would've figured out Jane's rhythm and actually had a chance to land a few hits as well; instead of attacking her again though, the ice demon suddenly stopped moving completely, then tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing into slits for a few moments, a look of dismay appearing on her face afterwards.

"Seems like the cavalry is faster than expected", she then casually stated, "so I'll have to make this quick." She smiled again, then brought up her hand and a fresh icicle formed in her palm, but just as she moved her arm to throw it, vines shot up from the crypt's ground, wrapping around her ankles and nearly making her lose her balance.

"No way we'll just let you leave", Willow stated, having to admit that she was feeling a tiny bit smug about how well that spell just had worked out and how much it had caught Jane off guard, "you'll have to wait until the cavalry arrives and explain to them why you tried to kill my girlfriend."

"I don't think so", Jane replied, getting over the shock quickly; she gave the redhead a brief smile, then brought her arm back and threw the icicle, the sharp weapon once again glittering almost beautifully as it flew through the air.

Dimly, Willow heard Pat shout her name, heard how the demon started to move, but already knew that she would be too slow, that the distance was too big; and then, the icicle hit her and pain exploded in her chest, the world darkening around her even as she was still falling, the darkness engulfing her and taking her away before she hit the ground.

* * *

The first thing she noticed when she woke up was the dull ache in her chest, and for a second, she had no idea why she was in pain; then, she remembered, and her eyes practically flew open while she tried to sit up, only to wince a second later and slump back down, realizing to her surprise that she was lying in bed.

It took her another second to figure out that it wasn't the bed she usually shared with her partner though; the bedroom it stood in was unfamiliar to her, making it clear to her that it wasn't part of Buffy's house, worry briefly filling her as she asked herself where she was and how she had gotten here. Before she could ponder this further though, the door opened, and Buffy poked her head in; this took some of her concern away, and she finally dared to sit up, having a moment to notice that the wound the icicle should have left wasn't there, then Buffy said her name and made her focus on her again.

"How are you feeling? Does it still hurt?" the blonde wanted to know, moving over to the bed and sitting down on the edge; nodding, Willow looked down at herself again, at the hole in her shirt and the perfectly intact skin she could see through it, still feeling too woozy to make the obvious connection.

"A bit", she let her best friend know, "but… why? There's no wound…"

"Pat did the spell", Buffy told her as answer to that, "but it keeps hurting for a while even afterwards, I know about it, trust me…"

"It hurts her after healing, too", Willow muttered, "she always complains about that… Where is she? And where are we right now? What exactly happened after that woman threw that icicle at me?"

"We're at the place of Jim and Sue", Buffy let her know, "and, well, we can only guess, by the time we got there, it was all over, there were some annoyingly persistent demons at the cemetery holding us up…"

"Where's Pat?" Willow demanded to know, the worry coming back with full force as the details of the spell her partner obviously had used finally came back to her, "she's okay, isn't she? Buffy, where is she?"

"She's in Jim's bedroom, this is Sue's", the Slayer replied, her voice now soft and kind, "and right now, she's not okay, but she will be, you know that, right? Just a few hours, then she can heal again…"

The only response she got was that Willow almost jumped out of bed, her heart hammering in her chest now as she told her best friend that she wanted to see her partner, right now, relieved when Buffy nodded at once and didn't try to talk her into staying in bed for longer.

"Just remember that she'll be able to heal it all in a few hours", she reminded her as she led her outside and down a short hallway; she stopped in front of a wooden door and gave Willow a concerned look, then knocked the wood, Jim's voice coming up behind it a moment later.

"Come on in", he called out, for once not sounding overly cheerful, but oddly serious; with her heart now hammering up to her throat, Willow moved past Buffy and opened the door, finding herself in yet another small bedroom, her gaze immediately focusing on the bed that stood at the opposite wall, her breath momentarily hitching in her throat when she saw her partner.

When Buffy had reminded her of the fact that soon, Pat would be able to heal again, she had known that it had to be bad; still that knowledge hadn't been enough to prepare her for the sight, her heart clenching up as she realized that not only the arrow wound had opened up again when Pat had done the spell to heal her, but that the injuries left by the beating from the evening of her birthday party had done so, as well, both Jim and Sue being busy with cleaning them, looking up though when she entered.

"I know it looks bad", he told her at once, obviously concerned by how her face had paled and her eyes had gone wide, "but she'll be okay, we're all sure of that. Aren't we, Sue?"

"Yes", the air demon agreed immediately, for once sounding serious and completely there, even though her eyes were warm and caring when she looked up from the demon and at the redhead, "she's strong and powerful, she'll be good as new soon."

"I hope so", Willow gave back, her voice trembling just enough to let the others notice; moving closer to her, Buffy put one hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze, making the witch look at her for a moment, the concern on her face prompting her best friend to give her a calming smile.

"She'll be fine", she then said, squeezing her shoulder again, "I know it looks awful right now, but the arrow wound is the worst, you know that…"

"She's lost a lot of blood thanks to that", Jim threw in, telling the witch something she hadn't really wanted to hear, "but it'll all be fine as soon as she can heal again. Buffy said it takes a few hours after that spell has been performed."

"It does", Willow agreed, finally moving over to the bed and sitting down on the edge, her heart clenching up again when she saw the bloody bandage that covered up the arrow wound, the demon's left arm bound to her stomach with another length of bandage to keep her from moving it around and making the injury worse.

"Wait", Buffy threw in from behind her while she took tender hold of her partner's other hand and just grasped it, not trusting herself to talk, fighting against the guilt that wanted to overwhelm her at seeing her loved one in such a state, "can't you guys heal too? Willow, can't you do the spell so she can borrow the healing of Jim or Sue?"

"I don't know", the redhead gave back after taking a few deep breaths and could be sure she wouldn't cry after all, "the book said it'd only work from demon to human…"

"It's still worth a try", Sue shrugged, giving her a cheerful smile, "isn't it? If it doesn't work, poor Pat will have to be in pain for a few hours, but if it does, all will be fine sooner!"

"Good point", Buffy nodded, "you should try it, Willow… You don't need any stuff to do the spell, right?"

"No, I don't", the witch confirmed, smiling weakly when Jim demanded to know why she didn't need anything, but Pat did, then explaining to him that by now, she was good enough at the spell that she could do it without the aid of herbs and powders, while her partner was a total beginner and thus had to use such supportive things.

"I'm actually surprised she managed to pull it off", she then muttered, looking at the demon again, asking herself how long it'd take Pat to wake up, should the spell not work, "I know that I have trouble doing magic when I'm upset or distraught, and I do it a lot…"

"Be glad she managed it", Buffy smiled at her, "judging from where that hole is in your shirt, I'm not sure you would have made it otherwise."

"Probably, yeah", Willow agreed after a second, "but it still makes me feel bad to see her like this now, because she had to heal me…"

"She won't like to hear that", Buffy let her know at once, moving closer to her and putting one hand on her shoulder again, "if she were awake now, she'd tell you to stop being silly and that she can handle it, with one of her rare macho moments."

"Yes, she would", the redhead agreed at once, with a tiny, but honest smile; Buffy smiled back, but before she could come up with another quip to cheer her friend up even further, Pat let out a low groan, and immediately, Willow was fully focused on her again, grasping her hand tighter as she said her name.


	16. Chapter 16

To the relief of her and everyone else in the room, the demon responded by forcing her good eye open, blinking a few times before she managed to focus, her voice hoarse when she recognized her partner right next to her and spoke up, her words making the witch smile slightly. "So it worked… Thank Goodness."

"It did", Willow confirmed, "you saved my life… again… And knocked yourself out by doing so. Are you in pain?"

For a moment, the demon looked as if she wanted to deny the obvious answer to that question, then she let out a low grunt and nodded, unable to hold back the grimace that formed on her face any longer.

"Quite a bit", she then muttered, "and my face feels as if I went ten rounds with Mike Tyson."

"It also looks that way", Sue helpfully let her know, gesturing at the broken nose and the black eye which had formed thanks to it, "but if the spell works from demon to demon, too, then you'll soon look normal again! And if not, you will anyway, in a few hours!"

"Huh?" Pat gave back, not all too smart, looking at her girlfriend in confusion; unable to hold back, Willow let out a short giggle, then regained her self-control, clearing her throat just to be on the safe side before she answered. "We'll try to give the healing abilities of Jim or Sue to you, so you can heal. If it works, it'll be great, if not, well, you'll have to wait then until you can heal again on your own…"

"I hope you have some painkillers around, in case it doesn't work", Pat muttered, her gaze moving from Willow to the other two demons, her face falling when they both shook their head with equal expressions of regret.

"But we can go out and get some, if it really doesn't work!" Jim then reassured her, glad when she looked much less crestfallen; she nodded, then winced as the simple movement made the world briefly spin around her, squeezing her good eye shut for a few seconds, until she could be sure the dizzy spell was over.

"We better try it now", she then grumbled, looking at her girlfriend again, "are you up to it..:? That wound was pretty gruesome."

"I'm fine", Willow reassured her at once, holding back the fact that she still felt dull pain where the icicle had hit her, "I can do it right now… Jim, Sue, which one of you wants to volunteer?"

"I'll do it", Jim shrugged after a moment, "it's been ages since I've been hurt, so there's no danger, right?"

"No", Willow informed him at once, "and in fact, those injuries from the beating shouldn't have opened up again, either, it only undoes healing from the last twenty-four hours, normally…"

"Guess I did something wrong then", Pat ruefully admitted while Jim moved to sit next to Willow, grasping the demon's free hand when the witch told him to, "I was quite upset, I have to admit."

"I would be worried if you'd been completely calm", the witch smiled, then asked them all to be quiet so she could concentrate; curiously, Buffy and Sue watched how she took in a few deep breaths, then started the spell, her voice low, but steady as she said the words that would hopefully borrow Jim's healing abilities to her wounded partner.

Forcing herself to hold still and not to fidget around in the bed, Pat watched with held breath as well, hoping that the spell would work the way it was supposed to; she knew that, even if it wouldn't, she easily would be able to heal it all soon anyway, but the thought of lying around in pain until then wasn't exactly appealing to her. Her anticipation reached new heights when Willow finally said the last few words of the spell; for a few seconds, nothing happened, then a jagged, sharp rock suddenly formed in Jim's palm, but instead of the familiar sensation of unnaturally quick healing, a bright light flashed up in front of the demon's inner eye, blinding her momentarily before her mind was filled with images and words, their content making her heart beat faster as she realized the full truth of the situation.

"…_make sure you'll go with them, I can't risk exposing myself, not yet…"_

"…_if things get edgy, just go for the girl, she'd do anything to save her, and you can just waltz out, no worries there..."_

"_Nah, they don't suspect a thing, I know what I'm doin', trust me, will you?"_

Jim jerked his hand out of her grip and the flow of images and sounds ended; and while she was still trying to regain her composure, the earth demon had jumped up from his seat, grabbed Willow and roughly jerked her to her feet, the jagged rock which had appeared in his palm during the spell pressed against her throat moments later.

"Too bad this happened right now", he stated, all cheerfulness gone from his voice, his normally warm and happy eyes now as cold as Jane's had been when she had attacked Pat for the first time, "you weren't supposed to find that out. I'm afraid I'll have to leave, then."

"Let Willow go right now!" Buffy snapped, taking a step closer to the two, only to freeze when in response, the chubby man pressed the rock harder against her best friend's throat and it cut into the skin, a breathless whimper escaping the redhead when she felt blood trickle down her throat.

"Jim!" Sue cried out, her eyes going wide while all Pat could do was stare, unable to believe that this was really happening, "what are you doing? Stop hurting this nice girl, she's our friend!"

Not even bothering to look at her, Jim simply ignored her, his gaze focused on Pat, a malicious smirk now curling his lips, his breath hot on Willow's cheek when he spoke on, forcing her to fight down the urge to cringe. "I'm taking your lil girl here with me now, just to make sure none of you comes after me. Maybe Jane and I will let her go once we're out of town, but maybe, we'll also just kill her. We'll see."

"Let her go, or I swear I'll torture you to death", Pat pressed out between grit teeth, her good eye glowing brightly red and smoke curling from her hands and towards the ceiling while she sat up, "and you know that I don't make such threats lightly."

"Oh, I do", Jim gave back, already moving backwards towards the door leading into the hallway, with a tight grip on the witch and the rock still pressed firmly against her throat, "but I also know that you'll need a few hours to heal and that you're in no state to fight right now. Too bad for you… and for her."

With those words, he moved through the door and into the hallway, pulling the mortified Willow with him; and the moment they were out of sight, the rock vanished from her throat, only to come down on the back of her head hard, blackness engulfing her once more as she slumped into the earth demon's arms, the last thing she saw before she fell unconscious being the nasty grin on his face.

* * *

For a few moments, the room was perfectly quiet, Buffy, Pat and Sue just sitting or standing there in shocked silence; and then, Sue suddenly burst into tears, startling both the demon and the Slayer and making them stare at her with wide eyes, something she didn't even seem to notice though.

"Now I'm all alone!" the air demon sobbed out after just crying wordlessly for a minute or two, "Jim and Jane are both evil and now you'll think I'm in on this too and will kick me out, but I'm not! How could they do this?"

"Uh, well, it's your place, so we can't kick you out", Buffy replied, saying the first thing which came to her mind, not caring that it wasn't exactly the best thing to say, "and, well… We can't really know if you're in on it or not, if you're telling the truth…"

"I am!" Sue wailed, looking at them with tears streaming down her cheeks, the sad expression in her eyes appearing quite genuine to the Slayer, "I really am! I didn't know they'd do this!"

"I don't care if you're in on it or not", Pat grumbled before Buffy could say anything, to the blonde's shock and dismay getting out of bed, "I'll go and kill them, and if you are working with them and will try to stab me in the back or something, I'll kill you, too."

"You're not seriously considering going after them, are you?" Buffy demanded to know in reply, giving the demon another flabbergasted stare. "That's just what they want!" she then added, "didn't you notice by now that they want you dead?"

"They've taken Willow", Pat replied at once, not really surprising the Slayer this time, "what do you expect me to do, just sit here and wait to see if they'll kill her or let her go? I'm not taking any chances. I'll find them and kill them, and if they harmed her, I'll kill them slowly."

"That's just what they want", Buffy repeated, feeling awfully helpless, knowing that she only would be able to stop the demon by knocking her out, something she wasn't willing to do, not yet at least. "They'll wait for you to come so they can kill you, and then they'll probably kill Willow too! Is that what you want?"

"I'm not going alone", the taller woman replied, unimpressed by her friend's pleading, "you'll come with me, and you'll make sure that you get Willow out."

"I want to come, too", Sue threw in, finally having stopped crying, even though her eyes still glistening suspiciously, and looking as if she was close to more tears when at once, Pat shook her head.

"I'd take you along if I knew for sure you're not with them", the taller woman then explained, to Buffy's surprise sounding quite kind, "but I don't, and two of the three of you already betrayed us. You understand, don't you?"

"…yes", Sue mumbled after a moment of silence, "and if I knew how to make you trust me, I would… Wait! I know how! I can listen to the wind, maybe it will tell me where Jim took poor nice Willow!"

"Do that now, then", Pat almost commanded, "every minute we waste here arguing puts more distance between them and us."

"Of course", Sue nodded at once, then hurried to the window and opened it; while she leaned out as far as she could without actually putting herself in danger of falling out, Buffy moved closer to Pat, keeping her voice low when she spoke up, her concerned tone making the demon frown slightly.

"You made a good point about not wasting any time, but you really shouldn't go after them, let me handle that… I've told you, that's just what they want you to do so they can kill you easily, you're hurt!" the Slayer once more tried to convince her friend of not going into this fight, even though already while she spoke, the look on the taller woman's face made it clear that she was wasting her breath.

"I will not just sit here and wait for you to solve this when they have Willow and are doing God knows what to her", Pat let her know once she had fallen silent again, now sounding surprisingly calm; the smoke had stopped rising from her clothing, and her good eye had gone back to the more normal blue, but despite how calm she tried to appear, Buffy could immediately tell that she was still seething with anger.

"I'll take them down, both of them", she went on when the blonde didn't reply at once, "and I want you to come along so you can get Willow out, but I will not let you handle them alone."

"Fine", Buffy finally gave in, realizing that no matter what she'd say now, Pat wouldn't give in, "come along then, but don't say I didn't warn you if you end up hurt even worse. And if you die, I'll never talk to you again."

"You'll never talk…", Pat started, then shook her head and gave the Slayer a strict look, unable to hold back a wry smirk though when Buffy smiled brightly at her; she nodded her agreement to those terms, then looked at Sue as the wind demon was pulling back from the window, her eyes sparkling.

"I picked something up", she proudly told the two others, "he's in a car with her, he's driving, and he put poor Willow into the trunk. The wind told me he's taking her to the office building where we fought her minions for the first time."

"That doesn't make any sense", Pat grumbled, looking at the other demon as if this was her fault, "Jim said they'd leave town with her, why take her there then?"

"Maybe he needs to pick Jane up there", Buffy shrugged, "does it matter? If we're quick, we might still catch them there, so let's go."

Nodding, Pat focused on Sue once more and told her to stay in the apartment, relieved when the other demon nodded at once; then, without another word, she turned to leave, realizing too late that Buffy was moving too fast behind her, turning just in time to see the Slayer's fist come at her, stars exploding in front of her eye when it connected with the side of her head.

"Buffy!" Sue shouted, startled, as the demon went down with a low grunt; shaking her fist, the blonde grimaced, then looked at the wind demon with a small sigh, sounding regretful when she replied to the unasked question. "If I'd let her go with me, it would have been suicide for her, in her state… and then, Willow would have killed me for not stopping her. She should wake up again in a few minutes, tell her I'm sorry, okay?"

"I will, but she'll be really mad", Sue gave back, grimacing; smiling weakly at her, Buffy just shrugged, then told her to be careful and to make sure that Pat wouldn't leave before she hurried off, eager to put as much distance between herself and the demon as possible before she'd wake up, well aware of the fact that "really mad" wasn't even coming to close to what the taller woman would be feeling once she'd wake up again and realize what exactly had happened.


	17. Chapter 17

When Willow had woken up again after Jim had knocked her out, it only had taken her a few seconds to realize that she had been put in the trunk of a car, and that said car was moving; and right after that, the realization that her hands had been bound behind her back had hit her, along with the unpleasant fact that her captor had stuffed a piece of clothing into her mouth, most likely to keep her from casting any spells.

_Alright, _she thought to herself, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to will away her pounding headache, _concentrate now, you can do this, you've never done it before… okay, bad thing to think, but anyway, you know it's possible, so you can do it, just try to keep calm... _

Giving her best to heed her own advice, she tried to regulate her breathing, something which wasn't made exactly easier by the gag; then, she closed her eyes again and flexed her fingers, moving her hands this way and that as she tried to visualize the rope Jim had used to tie her up and to figure out where exactly the knot was, unable to hold back a slight smirk when she finally had a clear picture of it in her mind.

Still she didn't start working her magic on the rope immediately, but remained in her position a bit longer, working on getting rid of the headache, knowing how much this increased the risk of her messing up; finally, she decided that she could ignore it sufficiently now and, with a deep, but calm breath, started focusing on the knot, imagining how it loosened, then opened, again and again, conjuring the picture in her mind.

_Come on, _she tried to prep-talk herself again, _you can do this, come on… _She didn't even notice that she squeezed her eyes shut as she focused harder, the image of the opening knot now bright and clear in front of her inner eye; and then, she felt a mild twitch of the rope wrapped around her wrists, the sensation nearly making her jump as her eyes flew open in the dark trunk.

_Yes! _the witch cheered inwardly, momentarily letting her concentration slip, _that's the right path, keep it up, you can do this… _She closed her eyes once more and, with some difficulty, forced herself to calm down before she focused on the knot again; this time, it only took a few moments until the twitch came again, much stronger this time, the redhead squeezing her eyes shut once more as she tried to put all her mental strength into the task of undoing this pesky knot.

A few more times, the rope twitched, hard enough to nearly make her jump again; and then, it stopped twitching and started to _move_, the unexpected sensation forcing Willow to use all her willpower so she'd keep concentrating and not let her focus slip again, her breath quickening despite her best efforts as she felt the rope move further and further, loosening, then falling away from her wrists.

Holding back the urge to let out some random noise of happiness, the witch moved as quickly as she dared, trying not to make too much noise so Jim wouldn't notice what she was up to; she pulled the gag out of her mouth, then tried to decide if she'd do a spell to free herself now or if she should wait until the car would stop, something which would be easy either way, now that she could use her hands and was capable of talking again.

Before she could come to a decision though, the car stopped, and the engine was killed; then, she heard one of the doors open and slam shut, followed by Jim's footsteps approaching the trunk, the redhead tensing as she wondered if he'd open it now and let her out.

"There you are at last", she heard Jane's voice a few moments later, sounding quite impatient, "I already thought the little witch did some of her mojo and knocked you out."

"I'm shocked you think I'd let that happen", Willow heard Jim reply, still finding it hard to believe that this man, who always had been so cheerful and nice to her, who had told her that she was the best thing that could've happened to Pat, had betrayed her partner and her like that, "of course I tied her up and gagged her. She won't be doing any magic like that, I know that."

"Good to know", Jane replied, "but now let's get moving, I can't believe you didn't kill our fiery friend when you had the chance, now we have to go on the run from her!"

"She won't follow us", Jim confidently gave back, making Willow frown to herself as she found this quite hard to believe, "I told her that I'll take her little toy for bed along so she won't do just that, she's way too much in love to risk anything."

He sounded so disgusted and annoyed at the last words that it made the witch forget all about the danger she was in and caused anger to flare up within her; narrowing her eyes, she put both hands against the lid of the trunk, a brief moment of concentration being enough to send a burst of energy from her palms and against the metal, with enough force behind the magic to make the lid practically fly open, an unpleasant screeching noise coming up when the metal bent upwards.

"What the…!" she heard Jim cry out, and then she was getting out of the trunk, already bringing her hands up again for another spell, one more burst of energy flying from her hands seconds later, hitting the chubby man right in the chest and sending him to the ground with a breathless cry of pain.

"Here's some more of my mojo", Willow let him know almost casually as he tried to get back to his feet, and with a flick of her wrist, thin strips of the concrete beneath him snaked upwards, wrapping around his arms and legs, keeping him firmly secured, another shocked cry coming from the chubby man when he realized he couldn't move an inch.

From the corner of her eye, the witch saw that Jane started moving, raising her arm; and without allowing herself to think about it, she threw herself to the left, behind the car, a low _thunk _coming up seconds later when the icicle Jane had thrown at her hit the metal instead of her body.

Making sure to stay low, the redhead hurried around the car, figuring that the vehicle made a better protection than any spells she could think of; she didn't want to use her energy for shielding herself from the ice demon's attacks, well aware of the fact that she'd need it to defeat her.

"You damn idiot!" she heard Jane shout at Jim, "now look what happened! What are we gonna do now?"

"Wait", the chubby man panted in reply, and to Willow's endless dismay, the sound of crumbling concrete reached her ears moments later, followed by the man's voice as he called out to her, his tone mocking and condescending.

"You think you can bind me with stuff that comes from the earth?" he wanted to know, laughing afterwards, "earth is my element, you stupid child! That's like trying to burn your girlfriend!"

"Stop talking and focus", Jane snapped as an answer to that, and Willow nearly jumped when she realized how close the other woman was to her, momentarily feeling like smacking herself for being so stupid – clearly, Jim had just been talking to distract her from the sound of the ice demon's footsteps as she had been approaching the car.

Even though she knew that it was risky, she briefly closed her eyes, focusing on the movement she could hear now that Jim had shut up, as Jane had told him to; and then, she jumped up from behind the car's hood, her hands already up, a burst of bright energy flying from them and hitting the startled Jane, sending her to the ground just as it had happened to Jim before. Since she didn't know how far his control of the concrete beneath the demon went, Willow didn't waste her time with trying to bind her; instead, she hurriedly climbed on the car's hood to get off the ground, hoping that Jim wouldn't be able to use the concrete against her up there, the look on the chubby man's face giving her confidence that she might be right about that.

"Want more mojo?" she demanded to know, raising her hands again, "there you go then!" Another burst of energy flew from her palms, but this time, Jim managed to avoid it by performing quite the daring dive; and the moment he had landed on the ground, he slammed both fists down on it, the car jumping seconds later as the ground beneath it shook and trembled violently, the movement nearly throwing the redhead off.

While she fought to keep her balance, Jane struggled to her feet again, her eyes now glowing with a bright blue as she angrily stared at the witch; a fresh icicle formed in her palm, but before she could throw it, something hit her hard in the back, and she got thrown down to the ground again, ending up on all fours this time, a pained noise escaping her.

"Figured you might need some help here", Buffy casually stated, landing another kick when the ice demon tried to get back to her feet; relieved to see her best friend had arrived, Willow nodded, then her eyes went wide as Jim pulled back his arm, but before she could shout a warning, Buffy already had noticed what he was about to do, avoiding the stream of rocks he fired at her by performing a surprisingly graceful roll to the right, ending up at the car's driver's side, hidden from the earth demon's view.

"Be careful", Willow warned her friend, her gaze moving back and forth between Jim and Jane, even though the ice demon was obviously dazed by the hits she'd taken, lying on the ground and groaning softly, "he can manipulate the ground, it's part of his powers…"

"You're so smart", Jim mocked in response to that, not attacking yet though, making her wonder if he was trying to figure out after whom he should go first, "but let's see how smart you'll feel once you've had a taste of what I can really do…"

And with those words, he clenched his fists, his eyes shining brightly green as his body started to change, growing even sturdier than it already was in his human form, his skin darkening and roughening until he looked as if he had been made of stone; both Buffy and Willow stared as they watched him change, realizing that until this moment, none of them had had an idea what his demonic side looked like.

"Come on", he rumbled as soon as he had finished changing, his voice now sounding like rocks rubbing against each other, "get up and change, then we can take them easily…" With those words, he bent down to help Jane to her feet; before he could do so though, Buffy practically shot out of her cover and rushed at the demon, jumping at the last possible moment, kicking him in the back with both feed. It felt as if she had kicked a solid stone wall, but at least, she obviously had caused some pain, since he yelped and stumbled, nearly falling; then, he regained his balance and spun around, catching the Slayer's fist as she tried to land a punch, a startled cry escaping Willow when she had to watch how he flung her best friend aside like some sort of rag doll and against the glass front of the office building, hard enough to make her break through said glass and land in a heap on the carpeted floor behind it.

"Buffy!" Willow cried out in concern when the blonde didn't move immediately; before she could do more than take one step on the hood though, Jim had turned towards her again, raising one hand, a bunch of thick, rope-like vines shooting from his fingers and wrapping around her waist, prompting her to let out a small, startled noise. He just took a second to give her a cold, cruel smile; and then, he flung his arm backwards, and she was jerked off the car hood, the building rushing at her with tremendous speed, just giving her enough time to shield her face with her arms before she, just like Buffy, got thrown through one of the still intact glass panels, the carpet softening the impact of her landing a bit, but not enough to make it completely painless.

Groaning, she rolled over, trying to come to her feet; she heard Jim laugh as he approached her and, deciding that she could get up later, glanced at him over her shoulder, then brought one hand up and sent another burst of energy at him, ignoring the blood that was dripping from the cuts the glass had caused in both her arms and on her chest and stomach, trying not to think about how deep and dangerous they might be.

While the spell hit the earth demon right in the head and forced him a few steps back, Buffy finally seemed to come around again as well, since she groaned, then opened her eyes and tried to come to her feet; she managed to do so after a few seconds, only to throw herself down on the carpet again moments later as Jim threw a large rock at her, the stone landing behind her and tearing up the floor as it slithered a few feet.

"We can't fight here, we're like sitting ducks for them", she panted as she crawled over to where Willow still was on her hands and knees, "come on, can you get up? We need to find some place where we can take cover…"

Nodding, the redhead came to her feet, Buffy glancing back over her shoulder as they hurried away from the lobby and to the nearest door to make sure Jim wouldn't throw anything at them again; to her relief, he had stopped focusing on them for the moment, but was helping Jane to her feet now, talking to her, probably telling her once again that she should change, too.

"In here", Buffy suggested, pulling the door open and exposing a hallway; together with Willow, she hurried down to the door at the other end of it, revealing yet another open plan office, thankfully as empty as the rest of the building clearly was, darker than the lobby had been, due to the fact that the blinds had been pulled down at all the windows.

"This will do", she decided, "we'll have some cover in here… I don't like the darkness, but there's no time to open all this silly blinds. How're your magic energy reserves or whatever it is called holding up, can you still do spells?"

"Yes", the witch confirmed at once, "the ones I used against them weren't very advanced, but they worked well enough…"

"Good", the Slayer smiled, clearly relieved, "maybe you should move a bit to the back then, I'll fight them hand to hand, but you can do your magic from a distance, right?"

Nodding, Willow did just what her best friend had suggested, moving past a row of workplaces so she could use the dividing walls between them as cover; ducking behind one of them, she gave her best to calm down and to focus, willing the pain from her cuts away as she waited for Jim and Jane to join them for what might very well turn out to be their last confrontation.


	18. Chapter 18

"…here somewhere, I saw them enter this door", Jim's rumbling, rock-like voice came up in the hallway outside not even two minutes later, "they can't have gotten far, the emergency exit's somewhere else."

"Unless they climbed out of a window, we're in the ground floor", Jane responded, her voice now sounding different as well, deeper and more throaty, "then we'll have to start over."

"I doubt they left", Jim gave back, his voice even closer to the door now; next to it, Buffy tensed, her grip on the fire extinguisher she had removed from one of the pillars in the room tightening, "they know we'll still be after our fiery friend even if they leave now, they won't just go and risk another attack on her."

"I'm surprised she didn't come along now", Jane commented while the doorknob started to turn, "you'd think she—" She got cut off as Jim stepped into the room and was greeted by Buffy smashing the fire extinguisher right into his face; the force of the impact was strong enough to throw him back, right against the much slimmer Jane, and they both went down, giving Buffy time to get away from the door and stand a few feet away from it, in her usual fighting stance.

"What a cowardly thing to do!" Jane said, of all things, as she struggled to get up; Buffy just smirked at her, then had to quickly dodge as the ice demon threw an icicle at her, the sharp tip hitting one of the dividing walls and getting stuck there, trembling slightly.

"Taking people hostage isn't exactly brave either", Buffy let her know as she watched her advance, figuring that she'd stay in the defence for now; behind her, Jim just remained on the floor, looking dazed, blood pouring from his nose and mouth where the fire extinguisher had hit him.

Hoping that he'd remain that way a bit longer, at least until she'd taken out Jane, Buffy dodged yet another icicle; and seconds after she had ducked out of harm's way, a blast of energy came flying from behind her, whooshing past her and hitting Jane, making her grunt as it sent her a few steps back.

"Stop that, idiotic witch", she then snapped, regaining her composure surprisingly fast and making the redhead wonder if her demonic form made her more enduring towards her spells; unlike Jim, her body hadn't changed to resemble her element, but had undergone a transformation more similar to Pat's, making her taller, but not bulkier, thin, white hair all over her body now, her eyes shining with bright blue light.

While she let yet another ball of energy form in her palm, Willow watched how the ice demon brought up both hands, her brow furrowing in concentration; this time, she didn't create icicles though, both Buffy and Willow realizing what she wanted to do when snow started to whirl around her hands, the number of the small white flakes quickly increasing.

"She wants to obscure herself from view!" the redhead called out, not aware of the fact that she didn't tell her friend anything new; smiling, Jane briefly looked at her, then the snowstorm she had conjured expanded and became too thick to let her see much more of the demon.

"And she calls me a coward", Buffy complained as she squinted into the snow, the white stuff by now swirling around in the whole office and making it impossible for her to see farther than a foot or two, her breath steaming in the noticeably cooler air as she spoke. Giving her best to concentrate, she decided to work with her hearing instead, trying to figure out if Jane was approaching her or not; and then, the woman suddenly was right next to her, a fist as cold and hard as ice slamming against her temple with tremendous force.

With a low grunt, Buffy stumbled, glad that being the Slayer, among other bonuses, gave her a thicker skull than normal people had; she turned to fight back, but Jane was already gone, and moments later, something hit her over the head from behind, sending her to the ground.

"Say your last prayers, bitch", Jane snarled at her, still obscured by the masses of snow she had conjured up; she pulled back her fist to land yet another blow, only to learn a second later that the snow could be a disadvantage for her as well when a dark shape came rushing out of it, tackling her and causing both her and her assailant to fall down to the ground.

She just had time to let out a startled "What…", then a strong wind came up and blew all the snow towards the door and out into the hallway, where Jim still laid; she had a moment to realize that his head was lying on the ground in quite an awkward angle, then she was punched right in the face, her eyes going wide when she realized who had come to the Slayer's rescue.

"This is for making me cry!" Sue yelled as she punched Jane again, the ice demon too stunned by this to fight back – after all, the much more delicate Sue never had liked it to use physical violence so far, always avoiding it as much as she could. Clearly, that had been forgotten now though as she pulled back her fist, telling her angrily that this was for hurting both Willow and Pat before she punched her for a third time, hard enough to make her cry out in pain.

"Good one", a deep, hoarse voice complimented from her right, making Jane look over, her blood running even colder than usual when she saw the tall figure standing next to her, burning from head to foot, a glowing red eye staring down on her, so full of anger that she knew that, even if she'd beg for mercy now, it wouldn't be granted.

"You did it", she brought out through a mouthful of blood, courtesy of Sue's third punch, "you killed Jim, Sue wouldn't be able to do it, she's not strong enough…"

"I did", Pat agreed amiably, then her foot shot out and she kicked the other demon in the ribs, making her wince in pain.

"That's for nearly killing Willow", the taller woman let her know, not letting it show if her still present injuries were hindering her in any way or were paining her, "and that's for trying to kill me." With those words, she kicked her again, making her cry out – before she clenched her teeth, her next words pressed out between them. "So you're gonna kick me to death? Is this how you work now?"

"No", Pat smirked as an answer, then reached behind her, making Jane regret that she had said anything when she pulled the sword from the sheath she'd been carrying slung over her unharmed shoulder; without another word, the demon raised the blade, and moments later, it came down, only to bite into the carpet as Jane had rolled out of the way in the last second.

"Damn you", the demon cursed, bringing the sword up again while Jane performed another roll and ended up on her feet, swaying slightly for a moment, the regaining her composure fully and clenching her fists.

"Tell Jim I said hello when you meet him in Hell", she snarled, an icicle as long as the black haired woman's sword forming in her palm; instead of throwing it though, she launched herself forward and at Pat, the icicle clashing with the sword as the demon jerked it up to block the slash.

Holding her breath, Willow watched how the two demons continued battling, the icicle and the sword meeting again and again, none of the two able to land a hit; to the witch's relief, the punches she had taken and the spells which had been used against her clearly had slowed Jane down, since she was nowhere near as graceful as she had been at the cemetery, even stumbled back a few steps when Pat brought her sword down in a sharp arch and she had to block the blow.

Gritting her teeth, she tightened her grip on her weapon and tried to stab the taller woman with it; easily, Pat sidestepped the attack, then her blade swung around and bit into Jane's upper leg, making her cry out as blood started to gush from the deep slash.

Ignoring the smaller woman's sound of pain, Pat swung at her again, the sword digging into the ice demon's rib cage; with a grunt, the demon forced the blade in even further, then jerked it back out, watching with an uncaring expression how Jane went down on her knees.

"I think it'll be you who'll join him", she stated, taking a step closer to the other demon and bringing her sword up again; with a final burst of strength, Jane let out a shrill cry as she swung the icicle around in a last try to stab the demon, her eyes going wide when easily, Pat avoided the attack once more, then her sword came down and the world went dark.


	19. Chapter 19

Letting out a heavy breath, Pat pulled the blade out of the demon's corpse, then carelessly let it drop to the ground as she turned to look at Buffy; still appearing a bit dazed, the Slayer was coming to her feet again at last, smiling weakly at her friend, sounding slightly sheepish when she spoke up. "Thanks for saving my butt… Especially after I knocked you out."

"I'll pay you back for that some time", Pat promised her, then looked around again, sounding slightly concerned when she asked where Willow was and if she was okay.

"I am", the witch answered that herself, coming out of her cover behind the dividing wall; in response, the demon just hurried over to her and pulled her into a one-armed embrace, only to let out a groan moments later and clutch at her wounded shoulder.

"And now I'll scold you", Willow said at once, concern in her voice now as she put one arm around the taller woman, "going into a fight against that woman when you're hurt!"

"But I won", Pat pointed out, straightening up again and giving her best to appear as if it just had been a brief flash of pain, but by now, Willow knew her well enough to see right through the little charade.

"Yes, you did", she still agreed, keeping one arm around the taller woman's waist just to be sure, "thankfully, when Buffy went down, I already thought we're in big trouble, but then Sue and you came to the rescue."

"That almost rhymed!" Sue beamed, speaking up again for the first time since her last line at Jane; she let out a giggle, then bounced on the spot, clearly back to her slightly strange nature, not seeming all too upset about the deaths of her friends.

"Uh, it did", Willow agreed, giving the demon a funny look; Sue beamed at her again, then looked down on Jane, her smile fading slightly as she let out a sigh.

"I wish Jane and Jim hadn't done that", she then let the others know, looking up at them again, "now I'm alone and will have to find new friends."

"Um, well, if you want to, you can stay here for a while", Buffy offered in reply, ignoring the way Pat raised an eyebrow at her at hearing that; smiling again, Sue shook her head, sounding much happier again when she replied. "No thanks, I think you have enough demon in your gang with Pat! I'll go somewhere else and find new friends there, it's always been easy for me!"

"Alright", the Slayer shrugged, "if you say so… But you can call us or come back anytime you want or need to, okay?"

"Sure, thank you", Sue smiled at the smaller blonde; Buffy smiled back at her, then let out a little grunt as she felt the cuts and bruises she had gained during the fight again, sounding tired when she spoke up again and asked the others if they were ready to leave and go back home – or if there was anything else they had to do.

"Nope", Pat was the one to answer that, "getting home sounds like a great plan. All I wanna do is lie down and—" A loud, oddly cheerful song blaring from Buffy's pocket interrupted her, and she raised an eyebrow at the Slayer, who just shrugged before she pulled out her cell phone, rolling her eyes when she look at the small display and saw who was calling.

"Angel", she let her friends know, "bet he'll tell me now what we already figured out anyway." She rolled her eyes again, then pushed the button which took the call and held the phone to her ear, greeting the vampire on the other end of the line with a friendly "Hi there, Angel."

"Hi back to you", Angel replied, "and sorry it took me so long to get back to you about that demon you asked me about, but something else came up. I have some information for you now though."

"Let me guess", Buffy gave back, a smirk on her face that made it clear to her friends that she was greatly enjoying this, "that Nivarius guy is actually two guys, one woman and one man?"

"Yes", Angel confirmed, sounding so surprised that Buffy had to suppress a giggle, not wanting him to think she was laughing at him, "why did you send me if you already knew?"

"We only found out after I sent you", Buffy let him know, "and by now, they're both dead. In fact, we killed them just ten minutes ago."

"Oh, good then", the vampire smirked, "so I assume you won't need any details?"

"Not now", Buffy let him know, "right now, all we wanna do is go home and sleep. I'll call you again later, alright?"

"Fine with me", Angel agreed amiably, then told her to take care before he said goodbye and ended the call; smiling to herself, Buffy put the phone back into her pocket, then let out a hearty yawn, making her need for rest quite obvious to the others.

"Let's go then", Pat suggested in response to the Slayer's tiredness, "oh, and should we take the corpses along?"

"Yes", Buffy decided after thinking about it for a moment, "let's dump them somewhere, if this building is used by regular, non-demonic companies, we don't want the workers to find corpses here Monday morning."

"Good point", the demon agreed, then bent down and picked up the dead Jane, slinging the lifeless body of her healthy shoulder; for a moment, she grimaced in pain anyway, prompting Willow to give her a concerned look, the redhead not surprised though when her partner put on a straight face again seconds later.

Making her way to the door, Buffy picked up Jim, huffing slightly at his weight; once she had a secure grip on him, she started making her way down the hallway, followed by the rest of the small group, a smile forming on her face when she remembered that the earth demon's car still was parked outside.

"At least we won't have to walk all the way", she let her friends know, making them all nod, their relief as evident as hers; she beamed at them, then struggled to open the door without dropping the dead man, succeeding after a few moments, leaving the office building with the others in tow two minutes later, already pondering where she should get rid of the corpses as she made her way to the car, eager to drop them off as fast as possible so she could go back home and get some rest at last.

* * *

"Am I glad that Buffy said she'd get rid of them on her own", Pat sighed out fifteen minutes later, dropping down on the couch and grimacing again when fresh pain flared up in her arm and shoulder, "I really meant it when I said that all I wanna do is lie down."

"No surprise", Willow commented from the bathroom, opening their small medicine cabinet there and finding what she had been looking for, namely the box of painkillers they kept in there, "you're quite good at putting up your tough macho front, but I know you well enough by now to see right through it."

"I know", the demon grumbled, even though her face lit up when the redhead came to join her and she saw the box of painkillers, her happy expression making the witch smirk slightly.

"At least I was kind enough to hold back any comments, so Buffy and Sue didn't notice", she then pointed out, handing the painkillers to her partner before she got up to get her some water, "I doubt Buffy was fooled though, but Sue probably was."

"It's always hard to tell with her", Pat gave back, already removing two of the pills from the package, "but I'm glad she took the death of Jim and Jane quite easily."

"Me too", Willow agreed, returning to the living room with a glass of water and handing it to the taller woman before she sat down next to her, "for a moment, I was a bit worried when I realized that her two closest friends are dead now…"

"Same here", Pat nodded, then quickly took the two pills with a big gulp of water, "and I still can't figure out why they would do all that, after all the grief they'd given me back then, when I said I'd leave and go back to my… former line of work."

"Well, Jane did say that she was doing the same, but only keeping it secret", Willow reminded her, "maybe she managed to convince Jim of joining her somehow… Even though he seemed more like the leader when I saw them together."

"Good point", the demon agreed, "but in the end, it doesn't really matter, does it? They're both dead and so, we don't need to worry about anyone out to kill me anymore. At least not more than we usually have to, in this nice and quaint town."

Nodding, Willow smiled at her girlfriend and snuggled close to her, making sure to stay away from her more gravely wounded parts as she did so, even though the blissful look on the black haired woman's face showed that the painkillers were already kicking in.

"You wanna hear something funny?" she asked as soon as she had made herself comfortable, making the demon nod, a slight smirk curling her lips when Willow continued talking. "I think your habit of not freaking out when in danger is finally rubbing off on me, when I woke up in Jim's trunk, I managed to stay calm and focused enough to do a spell and untie myself. And then, when he made some stupid comments towards Jane about our relationship, I got so angry, it was quite easy to blast him down with another spell."

"I hope my temper's not rubbing off on you then", the taller woman chuckled, making the witch giggle slightly as well with her next words, "or we'll blast this place apart the next time we have a fight."

"Hopefully, we won't have any fights anytime soon", Willow smiled as soon as she had calmed down again, "I don't like fighting with you. In fact, I almost hate it."

"Agreed", Pat gave back at once, "fighting's no fun. Well, fighting with you is no fun, fighting demons and vampires on the other hand…"

"Please never fight with me like you fight demons and vampires", Willow replied, with a mock horrified tone; this made the demon chuckle again, and she shook her head, giving the smaller woman a warm smile afterwards.

"I'd never do that", she then reassured her, "promise."

"I know", the witch giggled, snuggling even closer to her, "just teasing. But it's good anyway to hear you say it."

The reaction of the taller woman – namely poking out her tongue at her partner – was so unexpected and childish that Willow suffered through another attack of the giggles, feeling quite out of breath by the time she regained enough self-control to stop laughing; smirking as well, Pat moved one hand to caress her hair, sounding much more serious when she spoke up again. "Seems you're quite out of breath, need some mouth-to-mouth?"

"Yes, definitely", the redhead agreed at once, a well-known sparkle entering her eyes; with her smirk widening slightly, the demon bent down for a kiss, both Willow and her forgetting all about their pain as their lips met, content to know that once again, they'd been the ones to win, and that at least for a while, peace would return to their lives.

End.


End file.
